THE LIFE OF GEORGE MATHESON 

D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E. 



THE LIFE OF 



GEORGE MATHESON 

D.D., LL.D., F.R.S.E. 

y by 

D. MACMILLAN, M.A., D.D. 

MINISTER OF KELVINH A UGH PARISH, GLASGOW 



NEW YORK 
A. C. ARMSTRONG AND SON 
3 & 5 WEST EIGHTEENTH ST 
1907 



Printed by 
Morrison & Gibb Limited 
Edinburgh 




77/ 



+1 



TO 

HIS SISTER 
J. G. M. 



PREFACE 



I desire to express, in a word, my indebtedness to 
the many friends who so readily responded to my 
appeal for help in the preparation of this volume. 
To Miss Matheson in particular I owe much. 
She unreservedly placed in my hands the Literary 
Remains of her brother and all the materials in her 
possession that might aid me in my work. She 
gave me, besides, much information regarding his 
early life, and cleared up many points of doubt 
and difficulty. My cordial thanks are also due to 
the Rev. John Anderson, B.D., and the Rev. W. S. 
Provand, M.A., for revising the proofs ; to the Rev. 
R. S. V. Logie, M.A., for preparing the index ; 
and to my friend, Dr. William Wallace, for 
again placing his invaluable literary experience and 
judgment at my service. 

D. M. 

October n, 1907. 



CONTENTS 



CHAPTER I 

Early Years 

CHAPTER II 

Student Days 

CHAPTER III 

Recess Studies . 

CHAPTER IV 

Probation 

CHAPTER V 
Matheson of Innellan . 



x CONTENTS 

CHAPTER VI 
Authorship . . . . . .130 



PAGE 



CHAPTER VII 
Devotion and Poetry . . . . .166 

CHAPTER VIII 
Last Years at Innellan . . . .198 

CHAPTER IX 
The Edinburgh Ministry . . . .220 

CHAPTER X 

Pastoral and Literary . . . -250 

CHAPTER XI 
Dr. Matheson at Home . . . .287 

CHAPTER XII 
Last Years . . . . . -314 

Index 363 



CHAPTER I 



EARLY YEARS 



George Matheson was born in Glasgow on 
March 27, 1842. The Church of Scotland, of 
which he was to be so distinguished a minister, 
was on the eve of its greatest trial. The forces 
which for the past ten years had been concentrat- 
ing into opposing camps were now almost ready 
for the conflict that was to break up the Church 
into two bodies. A year after his birth the 
Disruption took place. His parents kept by the 
Church of their fathers, but the ecclesiastical 
division and strife into which young Matheson was 
born were not without their influence on him. 
They touched him, however, in a manner greatly 
different from that in which they affected most 
men. In place of embittering they would seem to 
have sweetened his temper. They set him in the 
ecclesiastical sphere the problem which in theology 
he all through endeavoured to solve. From the 
very first the question faced him : How can oppos- 
ing differences be reconciled? In the realm of 
religious thought he did his best by his writings to 



2 



EARLY YEARS 



answer that question ; and though he took no part 
in Church politics, his catholicity of spirit and 
practice did more to soften the acerbity of ecclesi- 
astical life, and to bring about a kindlier feeling 
between different communions, than the active and 
well-meant proposals of those who framed definite 
schemes of union. True brotherhood does not 
depend upon outward uniformity. The love of a 
common ideal, which in reality is the true bond of 
perfectness and peace, is independent of all external 
barriers. It treats them in relation to Christian 
fellowship as non-existent. 

It was at 39 Abbotsford Place, on the south side 
of the river Clyde, that Matheson was born. A 
walk through the district tells of its former glory. 
There still is the wide street with its blocks of 
solid masonry, giving the houses an air of sub- 
stantiality which time has not destroyed ; but 
the ever extending city has laid its hand on the 
once fashionable suburb, and by its smoke and 
tread of busy commerce has reduced it to the type 
of an artisan quarter. Its roomy dwellings still 
command tenants who prefer comfort to external 
appearance, but the rising merchants who fifty or 
sixty years ago chose it as a quiet, airy, and 
genteel locality, have long since migrated far beyond 
its boundaries. It offered, however, a sufficiently 
attractive residence for Matheson's parents at the 
beginning of their married life. 

George Matheson, the father, after whom his 
eldest son was named, was a fine type of the 



EARLY YEARS 



3 



successful Glasgow merchant of two generations 
ago ; shrewd, kindly, and God-fearing. He shared 
to the full in the old ideals of Scottish religious 
and social life, which wealth, in place of destroying, 
fed and fostered. The Church, with its time- 
honoured services and sanctities, was to him what 
it had been to his fathers, and he found his 
recreation in the kindly ministries with which it 
leavened public life. The old beliefs still stood 
unshaken ; and Church and State constituted to 
him a time-honoured union on which the prosperity 
of the country depended. His personality, after 
the lapse of years, stands out clear and strong. 
His memory is fondly cherished by the remaining 
members of his family, and by many who knew him 
through the intercourse of business and social life. 
He was a native of Dornoch. When quite a 
lad he was taken to Glasgow to be educated and 
launched upon his career. Dr. Matheson used to 
refer with pride to his Highland ancestry, and he 
ever regarded this happy chance in his father s life 
as the making of their fortunes. Had it not been 
for his father's response to the voice which called 
him thither, the land of promise, of intellectual and 
spiritual conquest, might never have been his. 

Dornoch has charms of its own. As a summer 
resort it is full of attractions. Its golf course is of 
ancient renown. So far back as 1630 Sir Robert 
Gordon wrote of it: "About this toun, along the 
seacoast, there are the fairest and largest linkes or 
green fields of any part of Scotland, fitt for archery, 



4 



EARLY YEARS 



goffing, ryding, and all other exercise ; they doe 
surpasse the fields of Montrose or St. Andrews." 
Professor Blackie, who wandered thither in 1881, 
while having a characteristic fling at the town itself 
as 4 'an old-fashioned, outlying, outlandish, grey 
nest," speaks of it as " interesting, with a splendid 
beach for sea-bathing, a fresh, breezy, and dry 
atmosphere, and a golfing course second to none in 
Scotland." It offered little inducement, however, to 
ambitious youth. Cut off from the commercial life 
of the country, and with few or no resources in 
itself, Dornoch practically compelled its sons to 
look elsewhere for success. Still it gave them 
what the more populous and wealthy centres could 
not bestow, and prepared them for those conquests 
which were in store for many of them. The robust 
health, the latent talent, the tireless energy and 
ceaseless enterprise of the Glasgow merchant, are a 
heritage from ancestors who ran on the " braes " of 
the Scottish Highlands and Lowlands. They were 
denied the opportunities which their sons enjoy. 
They received not the promise, some better thing 
having been reserved for those in whose life their 
own is perfected. 

The elder Matheson on coming to Glasgow 
looked, to begin with, to the ministry as his future 
career. This was natural. To country lads in 
his day, who were fired by youthful ambition, the 
Church seemed to be the only sphere in which 
their talents could find scope. The two men of 
importance in the parish were the laird and the 



EARLY YEARS 5 



minister. The position of the one was beyond 
them, but that of the other was within their reach. 
The intellectual joys of such a calling also appealed 
to them, apart altogether from the spiritual ideals 
in which its true significance is found. Accordingly, 
on leaving school he entered the University and 
became a proficient Latin scholar ; but his career as 
a student was of short duration. By the advice of 
friends his course was diverted into business, and 
after a time, along with Mr. William Wilson, after- 
wards so well known as the genial and popular 
" Bailie Wilson " of Glasgow, he started the firm of 
Wilson & Matheson in Glassford Street. The 
business prospered exceedingly, and under his 
second son, Mr. John Matheson, as its head, it 
still continues to prove successful. Mr. Matheson's 
early enthusiasms never left him. If he was not 
to be a minister of the Kirk, he at any rate could be 
an office-bearer in it. While he lived at Abbotsford 
Place he attended St. David's Parish Church (the 
Ramshorn), during the ministry of Dr. Paton. 
When he removed to the West End of the city he 
became one of the first promoters of Sandyford 
Church, and he was deputed, along with a few 
others, to hear the Rev. Mr. Macduff, then minister 
of St. Madoes in Perthshire, who became the first 
minister of Sandyford. Mr. Matheson continued 
during the whole of Dr. Macduff s ministry to take 
the deepest interest in church and parish, and he 
proved himself a loyal supporter and friend. Dr. 
Macduff on his deathbed dictated a letter (March 



6 



EARLY YEARS 



1 8, 1895) to Dr. Matheson, in which, among 
other references quite pathetic in their nature, he 
thus recalls his old office-bearer and friend : " My 
two strongholds in Sandyford, for genial kindness 
and wise direction, were that dear, great-hearted 
George Matheson of Glassford Street and James 
Ritchie." 

Dr. Matheson's parents were second-cousins. 
His mother was the eldest daughter of Mr. John 
Matheson of the Fereneze Print Works, Barrhead, 
and her brothers were Mr. John Matheson, Junr., 
of Messrs. William Stirling & Sons, Turkey Red 
Dyers in the Vale of Leven, and Sir Donald 
Matheson, K.C.B., of the United Turkey Red Co. 
Ltd. She came of a talented family. Her brother 
John was one of the foremost business men of 
his day, full of enterprise and energy. He 
possessed many of the qualities which afterwards 
distinguished his brilliant nephew. Cultured and 
versatile, a patron of art and literature, specially 
fond of music, a capable public speaker, and an 
author of considerable reputation, his sudden 
death in the prime of life was a distinct loss to 
his native city. Sir Donald was for many years 
the head of the volunteer movement in the West 
of Scotland. His services were repeatedly recog- 
nised, his final reward being a knighthood in 1887. 
The outside world might have said that Mrs. 
Matheson's special gift was song. Music certainly 
was the art she cultivated most ; as a pianist she 
was striking and brilliant, but her talent was many 



EARLY YEARS 



7 



sided ; and if it was from his father Dr. Matheson 
inherited that sane view of worldly matters and 
power of managing business affairs which frequently 
surprised even intimate friends, it was certainly 
to his mother he was indebted for his gift of 
imagination and spiritual insight. He was quite 
aware of this himself. " I was brought up on the 
most traditional theology," he once remarked. 
" My father held by the old paths ; my mother had 
an inquiring mind, and doubtless much of my 
speculative spirit comes from her." He thus united 
in himself, and in a unique degree, the special 
qualities of both his parents, and their joint 
influence on him accounts much for the man that 
he afterwards came to be. Young Matheson had, 
therefore, in the character and culture of his parents, 
the most valuable asset with which a child can be 
blest. He had also the advantage of a full family 
life. The Mathesons were eight : five sons and 
three daughters. George was the second eldest, 
coming next to that sister with whom his life was 
to be inseparably linked to the end. That touch of 
nature which marked him all through was early 
developed. It was fostered by his home environ- 
ment, and grew through the contact and conflict of 
the domestic circle. 

As a child he was inquiring and sensitive. 
His nurse used to be annoyed by his stopping 
her in her walk to ask, for instance, how masons 
built houses. The memories of childhood lived 
long in his mind. Towards the close of the remark- 



8 



EARLY YEARS 



able address which he delivered a few years before 
his death, in proposing the Immortal Memory at 
the Edinburgh Ninety Burns Club, he refers to 
the following youthful recollection : "I remember 
how in the days of my boyhood, in the midst of a 
crowded street, the scene of bustle and traffic and 
commerce, there lingered the trunk of an old tree. 
There it stood ; amid the din and the roar and 
the rattle, proclaiming the survival of the country 
in the town, like the touch of a vanished hand 
and the sound of a voice that is still." Another 
memory of his boyhood flashed upon him once 
when preaching a sermon in St. Bernard's to 
children, the day after the Sunday-school trip. 
The experience was one with which he would be 
familiar after his family had removed to St. Vincent 
Crescent in the West End of the city. The town 
had evidently been making encroachments upon 
Abbotsford Place, as one can gather from his 
reference to the "trunk of an old tree." In their 
new abode they would be secure from the "din 
and the roar and the rattle " of the city's commerce. 
From the windows of their house there was an 
unimpeded view of the upper reaches of the river ; 
nothing intervening but green fields. In preaching 
to the Sunday-school scholars on that occasion, 
he chose as his subject " The children playing in 
the streets of Jerusalem," and in the course of 
his sermon he told them how, as a boy, he had 
watched the different steamers on the Clyde. 
To each steamer a name had been given by 



EARLY ' YEARS 



9 



the children of the Crescent, and one which was 
always behind was christened " Sure to be Late." 
He had also, like his favourite poet Burns, an 
eye not only for natural objects but for the 
dumb creation as well, and a heart that felt for 
their suffering. 

It will thus be seen that, in his early years, he 
had the use of his eyesight ; not by any means 
the full use, for at the age of eighteen months 
his mother made the melancholy discovery that his 
power of vision was impaired. The cause of the 
defective sight was found to be inflammation at 
the back of the eyes. Dr. Mackenzie, the leading 
oculist in Glasgow at the time, was consulted, but 
he could do nothing. He held out the hope, 
however, that if the boy lived to be an old man he 
might see well. Other specialists were consulted, 
one of whom declared that he had a perfect 
organ of vision ; but no operation was proposed, 
and no means could be recommended by them 
for effecting a cure. The fact of Dr. Matheson 
having what appeared to be a perfect organ of 
vision, struck more than the oculist referred to. 
There were times when his friends thought that 
he not only saw them, but saw through them. 
This must have been Mr. Eric Mackay's experience, 
for when visiting Dr. Matheson, along with his 
foster-sister Marie Corelli, he suddenly paused in 
the midst of his conversation and remarked, " You 
have a penetrating eye, Dr. Matheson." 

The failure of his eyesight was gradual. Dur- 



10 



EARLY YEARS 



ing the greater part of his school-life he was able 
to see sufficiently well to read and to write, and 
to acquire a competent knowledge of the Classics 
and of French and German. He used powerful 
glasses and availed himself of large type, and was 
permitted at school to sit near a window with 
a southern exposure so that he might get the 
full benefit of the sunlight. But from the time 
that he entered the University until the end he 
was dependent upon others. There is indeed a 
tradition of him, while in the Humanity Class, 
construing at times from the pages of his own 
book, but there were occasions when he was 
unable to do so. A fellow-student remembers 
young Matheson listening eagerly to a companion 
reciting, at the door of the class-room, the lesson 
for the day ; it was a chapter from Ramsay's 
Roman Antiquities. It was only by having it 
read to him that he could learn its contents. By 
the time he entered the Logic Class his eyesight 
for all practical purposes was gone ; he was then 
in his eighteenth year. It never could be said 
that he was totally blind ; he had his moments 
of vision. Looking out from his windows at 
Innellan Manse, across the Firth, he sometimes 
caught a shadow of the steamers as they flitted 
up and down. Walking along one of the main 
streets of Glasgow, he at times could discern the 
sign-boards above the shop doors and windows. 
Indeed, it would almost seem as if Dr. Mackenzie's 
prophecy was to become true, for in the autumn 



EARLY YEARS 



11 



in which he died, while driving in North Berwick 
with his two sisters, opposite to whom he sat, 
he remarked that the one had no veil while 
the other wore a thick black one ; which was the 
truth. A correspondent recalls the following 
incident : — 

During the summer of 1869 I was on a visit to my 
father and mother at their seaside quarters at Innellan. 
One day Mr. Matheson took afternoon tea with us. The 
conversation turned on his great deprivation. My father, 
who had snow-white whiskers, and who was seated near 
him, asked, " Have you never lucid moments of sight, Mr. 
Matheson ? " " Yes," he said ; " for instance, I observe that 
you have very white whiskers." In the same connection 
a lady related to me an incident which seemed to have 
had rather a touch of romance about it. She was a young 
widow, and a member of his church. One day she sailed 
with him in the steamer to Glasgow, when it happened 
that she wore a bright new brooch. They were standing 
together in the cabin, the lady closer perhaps than she 
would have ventured if her young minister had had his 
eyesight. She was looking at his face with a yearning 
sympathy, when a sudden flood of sunlight came through 
the adjoining cabin window, illuminating them both. " I 

think, Mrs. , you have got on a new brooch," said Mr. 

Matheson. " And didn't I get a red face," said Mrs. . 

The occasions, however, on which there were 
such luminous breaks in the darkness that shrouded 
him were few in number. It is possible that if 
the medical knowledge of his day had been 
equal to what it is in ours, the disease might 
have been cured in its initial stages, and then 
we would have had even a greater George 
Matheson ; for those who knew him in his early 
schooldays, before his defective eyesight grew 



12 



EARLY YEARS 



so bad as to make him dependent upon others, 
were conscious of the splendid use he could have 
made of the faculty of vision. It has, however, 
been remarked that his loss of eyesight was in 
a sense the making of him. This may be true, 
if we reflect on the moral heroism which he dis- 
played in rising superior to the physical calamity 
which would have crushed most men, and mak- 
ing it a stepping-stone to spiritual triumphs. I am 
aware that those who speak thus are of opinion 
that his natural defect threw him back upon 
himself, compelled him to meditate upon Divine 
things, and thereby enabled him to produce those 
works which by their depth, insight, and suggest- 
iveness have been the joy and comfort of many. 
That touch of mysticism in his preaching and 
writing, in which consisted much of their charm, 
they hold, might have been wanting if Matheson 
had been distracted by those sights which disturb 
or absorb the thoughts of most men. There may 
be a measure of truth in this, but only, after all, a 
very limited measure. George Matheson was cast 
by nature in the mould with which we are familiar, 
and his education, environment, profession, and 
impaired eyesight may each have had its share in 
his spiritual and intellectual development ; but his 
own personality was greater than them all, and they 
and the other circumstances of his life were utilised 
by it in forming and perfecting his character and 
finishing his work. 

Hearers of Dr. Matheson's preaching, readers 



EARLY YEARS 



13 



of his books, and even members of his congrega- 
tion, seldom thought, perhaps, that there was a 
time in his life when the awful tragedy of the loss 
of his eyesight all but overwhelmed him. He was 
such an optimist, so buoyant and inspiring, that it 
would not occur to them that he was blind, or that 
there was an hour in his life when he all but 
succumbed to the deep despondency into which his 
threatened loss threw him. Yet there was such an 
hour. He had as a boy the happiest of natures ; 
he took unaffected delight in every pleasure that 
was innocent ; he was companionable, and shared 
the interests, the pastimes, and the joys of his 
family and schoolfellows. He had a mind that 
reached forward to the boundaries of knowledge, 
a soul that yearned to be in touch with every- 
thing divine and human ; he took a natural zest 
in life, and was ambitious of probing its depths 
to the full. And yet at the very opening of his 
manhood the appalling fact faced him that he would 
have to go through life maimed, crippled in that 
very faculty by whose means the world of know- 
ledge, in which from his earliest years he took 
supreme delight, could be gained ; and debarred 
from sharing in those human interests in which his 
soul rejoiced. He felt more than a momentary 
shock when he knew that a cure was impossible. 

It was now that he entered upon the great 
struggle of his life and encountered the trial which 
tested his character to the utmost. It has always 
seemed to me that there is more than a reminiscence 



14 



EARLY YEARS 



of this period in his study of the Book of Job. The 
problem which this profound poem raises had a 
singular attraction for him. It formed the subject 
of the sermon which he preached before Queen 
Victoria at Balmoral, and he dealt with it on 
subsequent occasions in the pulpit and through the 
press. It was the very problem which he himself, 
in the first blush of eager manhood, had to solve, 
not only theoretically but practically, by a veritable 
agony and bloody sweat. Why should the innocent 
have to suffer? Why should a catastrophe alto- 
gether unmerited befall him ? Why should his 
career, through no fault of his, be blasted on its 
very threshold ? Why should he be denied those 
natural and intellectual joys for which he was so 
well adapted ? These and similar questions that 
test a man's faith recurred to him with overwhelm- 
ing force at this time ; and his after life, from that 
very moment to its close, was a proof that he 
answered them in the only way by which peace is 
possible. In the spirit of his Master he conquered 
through submission. Thus early did he enter into 
the very Holy of Holies, and discover the secret 
of Christianity. 

His education began at a very early period. A 
tutor at first came in to teach him. Afterwards he 
went to a school in Carlton Place, conducted by a 
Miss Hutcheson, and then to Mr. Buchanan's in St. 
George's Place. Something more than a tradition 
remains of this pedagogue. Many men who after- 
wards became famous passed, in their youth, 



EARLY YEARS 



15 



through his hands. He had considerable reputa- 
tion as an educationist, and excelled as a teacher of 
elocution. It is not at all unlikely that Mathesons 
oratorical gifts received their first impetus from his 
early schoolmaster. Buchanan, after retiring from 
his profession, resided at Port Bannatyne in Bute. 
He was in the habit of entertaining his friends with 
a rehearsal of his triumphs in the teaching art, 
boasting of the distinguished men whose early 
genius he had inspired, and taking not a little 
credit to himself for Mathesons gifts as a 
preacher. 

It was when George was about ten years of age 
that the Mathesons removed to the West End of 
the city. The district which they chose for their 
residence was quite in the country. Those who 
know Glasgow only as it now is can hardly believe 
that St. Vincent Crescent could ever have been in 
the country. It is now surrounded by docks, rail- 
way lines, and public works. Like Abbotsford 
Place, it has had to yield to the pressure of the 
city's industry. The Mathesons took up their 
abode first in No. 60 and afterwards in No. 30, 
and it was in these two houses that the foundation 
of their son's education was laid. They were 
fortunate in having within an easy walking distance 
one of the two best schools in the city. This was 
the Glasgow Academy, recently erected. It was 
at that time situated in Elmbank Street. After 
the passing of the Scotch Education Bill it was 
bought by the School Board, and to it the High 



16 



EARLY YEARS 



School was removed from its old premises in John 
Street, the Academy migrating westward to hand- 
some new buildings across the Kelvin, in Hillhead. 
Young Mathesons first session in the Academy 
was in 1853 ; he remained in it altogether four 
years, and his record was one of unbroken distinc- 
tion. The close of his first year at the school saw 
him Dux of his Class. He in addition gained the 
prize for History and Religious Knowledge. His 
second year at the Academy was his first in Latin. 
On this occasion he won the second prize, and 
carried off the prizes in History, Geography, and 
English Composition. In his third session he 
resumed his former place as Dux of his Class, 
winning all the other special prizes, and in addition 
the prize in Science. Had he completed his full 
course he would no doubt have been in his last 
year Dux of the School, but he left at the close of 
the Session 1856-7, and never took the fifth Latin 
Class, which at that time was the highest. One 
of Dr. Mathesons old schoolfellows, Mr. James 
Hotson of Glasgow, gives the following remin- 
iscences of those far-off days : — 

My first acquaintance with Dr. Matheson would be 
about 1853, when my father's family removed to No. 31 
St. Vincent Crescent. George Matheson and his next 
brother attended the same school with some of us, — the 
Glasgow Academy, — and my younger brother Hamilton 
and myself came, after a time, to be in the same class 
with him. It happened thus that we frequently walked 
to and from school together. The usual route was along 
Kent Road, then a real road, with deep hollows, called 
"orchards," on both sides. There were orchards also 



EARLY YEARS 



17 



behind the Academy playground, so that when a football 
happened to be kicked over the paling it frequently took 
some time to recover it. There were at that time two 
headmasters in Classics, Dr. M'Burney and Mr. Currie. 
Matheson was at first under the former, but in 1856 he 
changed to Mr. Currie's, under whom my brother and I 
had been all along. Mr. Currie, to judge by his Ccesar 
for Beginners and Notes on Horace^ both used in his 
classes, must have been a man of considerable scholar- 
ship, but I cannot say he was much of a teacher. 
He conducted the class usually after a sleepy sort of 
fashion, alternating with periods when he made things 
just a little too lively. Our principal other teachers 
were Mr. Bell (English), Mr. Reid (Arithmetic and 
Mathematics), Mr. Gow (Writing and Book-keeping), 
and Mr. Finlay (French and German). I cannot 
remember anything of Matheson's appearances in Mr. 
Bell's or Mr. Reid's class. Both were pleasant men 
generally, although at times they could be stern 
enough. Mr. Gow was good-natured even to softness. 
Matheson and I had a seat next each other, at a desk 
facing a window, and the circumstance that, with such 
light as he would thus get, he could practise a kind of 
half-text, shows that at that period his eyesight was not 
nearly so defective as it afterwards became. He and I 
were then engrossed with Byron's " Corsair," and I regret 
to say that I occasionally carried the book in my pocket 
and read bits of it to him when we ought to have been 
attending to our copy-books. Mr. Finlay was also 
extremely good-natured. When he set us to recite a 
portion of some amusing French Comedy, which he 
frequently did, and laughed himself as heartily as any of 
the boys, it seemed more like a dramatic entertainment 
than a school lesson. I remember Matheson, James 
Carlile, and my brother taking part in one of these 
recitals. But our principal class was Mr. Currie's, in 
which, besides Latin and Greek, we had lessons in History, 
Geography, Religious Knowledge, and English Com- 
position. Matheson from the first distinguished himself 
in all these, but it was chiefly in English Composition 
2 



18 



EARLY YEARS 



that he excelled. In this, however, he had a keen rival 
in John Ronald, who had long been acknowledged first 
in this department, and was bitterly jealous in conse- 
quence. Matheson composed a poem " Bethany Tears," 
and the boys subscribed and had it printed. It began 
thus : 

Once when the world in pomp and pride swept by, 
And " Raise up Mammon " was its ruling cry, 
When man in sin's embrace had fallen asleep, 
The God-man Jesus was constrained to weep. 
Time has flown on with wings of speed arrayed, 
Empires have risen, flourished, and decayed ; 
Great kings and warriors in oblivion lie, 
But those embittering tears can never dry. 

Without delay Ronald came out with a lampoon on 
Matheson, commencing : 

In sparkling Clutha's verdant vale, 
A verdant Homer chants his tale, 

which though not printed was quickly circulated through- 
out the class. Towards the end of the session Matheson 
wrote and recited another set of verses, the refrain of 
which was : 

Up, up and rejoice, the vacation is nigh, 

which showed that his good spirits were not much 
affected by Ronald's rivalry. Of the other leading boys in 
his class, which numbered about eighty, I need scarcely say 
anything. There was one, however, who afterwards highly 
distinguished himself in the literary world as poet, 
novelist, and playwright — I mean Robert Buchanan. He 
made no figure to speak of in any of the classes. I 
suppose he was too much occupied with Shakespere, 
then his favourite author, to do justice to his lessons. 
Although he also lived in St. Vincent Crescent, and must 
frequently have walked to and from school with the 
other Sandyford and Partick pupils, I don't think 
Matheson and he ever got intimately acquainted. My 



EARLY YEARS 



19 



brother and I knew him quite well, and spent a good deal 
of time in his company. The most remarkable feature in 
his personal appearance was his enormous head. I could 
give some reminiscences of him, but "that is another 
story." Matheson at school was well liked and very 
popular. He was always in good spirits and full of 
laughter. 

One at the first blush must feel surprise at the 
high spirits of young Matheson and the success 
of his schooldays. Credit him with the most 
cheerful nature and the most brilliant talents that 
ever a youth possessed, the portrait of him that 
has thus been drawn by an old companion surely 
calls for some explanation. This will be found in 
his home life. No youth could be more happily 
situated in this respect than he was. His parents, 
on discovering his talents, gave him every en- 
couragement, and having ample means at their 
disposal were quite prepared to spare no expense 
on his education. But the difficulty faced him how, 
with the increasing loss of eyesight, he could 
acquire a knowledge of subjects which were 
necessary for a scholastic career and continue 
abreast of the progress demanded of any who 
aspired to a University degree and a learned pro- 
fession. It was when this need became apparent 
that the members of his family rallied round him 
and began to show that devotion to his interests 
which continued to the very end. The home of 
the Mathesons at this period affords a picture of 
a " Scottish Interior," equal in beauty, on its own 
lines, to that which Burns gives in the 1 ' Cottar's 



20 



EARLY YEARS 



Saturday Night." We see the father and mother 
with the other members of the family gathering 
round the budding preacher, who at the early age 
of seven improvised a church and congregation, 
and standing on a chair which for the occasion was 
dignified into a pulpit, and with a pair of paper 
bands on his breast, astonished his hearers by 
delivering sermons which showed an ability and 
an eloquence far beyond his years. While still a 
schoolboy he wrote a play with Theseus as its 
hero. This play was frequently acted in his 
mother's drawing-room ; his brothers and sisters 
taking the leading parts, with a select number of 
relatives and friends as auditors. 

It was, however, in relation to his studies, and 
the necessary preparation of them for school and 
University, that the devotion of his family comes 
into the boldest relief. Latin, Greek, and Hebrew 
do not as a rule commend themselves to the minds 
of women. It is only within recent years, after 
the gates of the Universities were thrown open 
to them, that the gentler sex began to show any 
special interest in these subjects. Yet in this 
" Scottish Interior" we see two of Dr. Matheson's 
young sisters labouring earnestly to acquire a know- 
ledge of these languages, so that they might be able 
to read them to their brother and thereby assist him 
in his career. 

It was at an even earlier stage than this that 
his eldest sister began to forge those links which 
joined her in so close a union with her brother, 



EARLY YEARS 



21 



and which grew in strength as the years passed 
by. It was she who taught him to read, and 
she still remembers the childish delight with 
which she one day announced to her mother that 
George was able to spell. The interest of the 
other members of the family might flag or vary, 
but hers knew no change. She was in very truth 
his alter ego, and it was touching to notice the 
way in which he leaned upon her. Her sympathy 
and companionship had become indispensable to 
him, and the one great dread of his life was 
that she might be taken first. It is impossible 
to measure her literary labours, especially during 
the earlier period of her brother's life. His college 
exercises and essays are in her hand-writing. 
It was she, too, who to his dictation wrote his 
earlier sermons. It was not until he had entered 
upon his ministerial career that the services of a 
permanent secretary were secured, and she was in 
a measure relieved. This, after all, was but giving 
up one task to undertake another, for after he 
became a parish minister, and his rising fame drew 
crowds of admirers to his door, upon her largely 
rested the burden of guiding her brother through 
the quicksands and pitfalls of congregational and 
parochial life, and of tempering those social rela- 
tions into which his position naturally drew him. 
In a scrap-book, which dates from 1868, there is 
to be found on its very first page a sonnet by the 
Archbishop of Dublin on a " Brother and Sister" 
who died at the same time. It was evidently 



22 



EARLY YEARS 



selected for preservation because of the singular 
manner in which it expressed not only their affec- 
tion but also their wish : 

Men said who saw the tender love they bare 

Each to the other, and their hearts so bound 

And knit in one, that neither sought nor found 

A nearer tie than that affection rare — 

How with the sad survivor will it fare, 

When death shall for a season have undone 

The links of that close love ; and taking one 

The other leaves to draw unwelcome air ? 

And some perchance who loved them, would revolve, 

Sadly the sadness which on one must fall, 

The lonely left by that dividing day. 

Vain fears ! for He who loved them best of all, 

Mightier than we life's mysteries to solve, 

In one fire chariot bore them both away. 



I 



CHAPTER II 

STUDENT DAYS 

Dr. Matheson's early interest in intellectual pur- 
suits clearly marked him out for a professional 
career. His impaired eyesight, with every indica- 
tion of its final loss, necessarily limited his choice. 
His own inclinations pointed to the Bar. Indeed, 
in after years, he used to declare that if he had 
been without any physical impediment, this is the 
profession he would have chosen. One can readily 
understand the reasons which would weigh with 
him in preferring such a choice. He possessed 
in a marked degree the qualities necessary for 
success in such a career. He had natural ability, 
mental alertness, and the gift of speech. His 
buoyancy of nature and indomitable perseverance 
would have enabled him to surmount the prelimin- 
ary drudgery, and to wait for his first great 
opportunity. It may be profitless to forecast his 
success in such a profession, but it is surely not 
too much to say that, all things being equal, he 
would have risen to eminence and become one 
of the most distinguished advocates of his time. 

23 



24 



STUDENT DAYS 



How striking a resemblance exists in this re- 
spect between the opening years of his life and 
those of Robertson of Brighton ? Robertson's 
early ambition was to be a soldier ; Matheson's, 
a barrister. An unseen Hand intervened in both 
cases and led them to the Church ; but as 
Robertson's early pieties marked him out for the 
career which he in the end was to follow, may we 
not see in young Matheson, preaching, at the age 
of seven, sermons to his family which caused them 
to wonder, that his choice had already been made, 
although at the time he was altogether unaware of 
it. 

The young scholar was singularly fortunate in 
the place of his birth. He had at his door not only 
one of the best schools which his native country 
could provide, but a University whose roots were 
deeply imbedded in the past, and whose steadily 
growing fame gave an impetus to the student who 
was ambitious of scholastic success. The Uni- 
versity of Glasgow was founded in the Middle 
Ages, when the city, of which it was afterwards to 
be so distinguished an ornament, was little more 
than a village. It was subjected to many vicissi- 
tudes, especially in its early years ; and immediately 
after the Reformation it had all but vanished. 
New life was put into it by Andrew Melville, its 
first great Principal, and from his day till our own 
it has never, with the exception of one or two 
pauses, looked back. It has within recent years 
entered upon a period of hopeful expansion, and its 



STUDENT DAYS 



25 



future promises to be more than worthy of its past. 
Since Matheson left the University, only forty years 
ago, it has, however, undergone so many changes, 
almost amounting to a revolution, that the young 
student of to-day can have no idea of what his 
Alma Mater was half a century ago. Her home 
is now on Gilmorehill ; it was then in the High 
Street. The house in which she dwelt was be- 
grimed with the city's smoke ; her new abode 
shines resplendent. 

The ancient College of Glasgow, as it appeared 
to the men and women of the eighteenth or nine- 
teenth century, is now a thing of the past. Every 
stone of it has been carried away ; and with the 
exception of the lodge at the main entrance to the 
present University, and the stairway that leads 
from the professors' court to the quadrangle, not a 
vestige of it remains. In a few years very few 
will be alive who studied in the old place, and it 
will be difficult for future generations to believe 
that the site of the present unsightly railway depot 
was once dedicated to learning and to the Muses. 
The old buildings, with which Matheson and his 
contemporaries were so familiar, were begun early 
in the seventeenth century, and a hundred years 
elapsed before they were quite completed. 
Glasgow was proud of them in their day, and Sir 
Walter Scott writes in Rob Roy, with not a little 
enthusiasm, of the " old-fashioned buildings," ' ' the 
college yards," and "the solitude of the place"; 
" the grounds opening in a sort of wilderness, laid 



26 STUDENT DAYS 

out in the Dutch taste with dipt hedges and one 
or two statues." Other writers, from " Jupiter" 
Carlyle to A. K. H. Boyd, have exercised their 
gifts in describing the ancient University and 
College life in Glasgow. Carlyle had not a very 
sharp eye for externals ; he is for the most part 
silent about the buildings themselves. He was 
much more interested in the human beings that 
inhabited them, or who, at any rate, found in them 
the centre of their existence. Nothing that has 
since been written can be at all compared to his 
vivid sketches of Glasgow society and Collegiate 
life in the year immediately preceding the 
'45. Principal Campbell, Professors Leechman, 
Hutcheson, and Simson, still live in the pages 
of his famous Autobiography. But it was the 
Principal's daughter, " Miss Mally," who was the 
chief personage, in the estimation of young 
" Jupiter," of all the brilliant set in which he 
mingled. " For on asking," he says, "my friend 
James Edgar, afterwards a commissioner of the 
Customs, for a letter of introduction to someone 
of importance and influence, he gave me one to 
Miss Mally Campbell, the daughter of the 
Principal ; and when I seemed surprised at his 
choice, he added that I would find her not only 
more beautiful than any woman there, but more 
sensible and friendly than all the professors put 
together, and much more useful to me. This," he 
adds, " I found to be literally true." 

Lockhart, Scott's son-in-law, in Peter s Letters 



STUDENT DAYS 



27 



to his Kinsfolk, and Captain Hamilton, brother of 
the famous Sir William, in Cyril Thornton, give 
descriptions of the College and College life in their 
day, but the account which affords the best idea of 
the external appearance of the University buildings 
as they existed in Matheson's time is A. K. H. B.'s, 
who himself was a student of Glasgow University. 
It will be found in his Leisure Hours in Town, and 
refers to the period when Matheson was still an 
undergraduate : 

The stranger in Glasgow who has paid a visit to the 
noble cathedral, has probably, in returning from it, walked 
down the High Street, a steep and filthy way of tall 
houses, now abandoned to the poorest classes of the 
community, where dirty women in mutches, each followed 
by two or three squalid children, hold loud conversations 
all day long; and the alleys leading from which pour 
forth a flood of poverty, disease, and crime. On the left 
hand of the High Street, where it becomes a shade more 
respectable, a dark, low-browed building of three storeys 
in height fronts the street for two or three hundred yards. 
That is Glasgow College ; for here, as also at Edinburgh, 
the University consists of a single College. The first 
gateway at which we arrive opens into a dull-looking 
court, inhabited by the professors, eight or ten of whom 
have houses here. Farther down, a low archway, which 
is the main entrance to the building, admits to two or 
three quadrangles, occupied by the various class-rooms. 

There is something impressive in the sudden transition 
from one of the most crowded and noisy streets of the 
city to the calm and stillness of the College courts. The 
first court we enter is a small one, surrounded by 
buildings of a dark and venerable aspect. An antique 
staircase of massive stone leads to the Faculty Hall or 
Senate House; and a spire of considerable height sur- 
mounts a vaulted archway leading to the second court. 
This court is much larger than the one next the street, 



28 



STUDENT DAYS 



and with its turrets and winding staircases, narrow 
windows and high-pitched roofs, would quite come up 
to our ideas of academic architecture; but unhappily, 
some years since, one side of this venerable quadrangle 
was pulled down, and a large building in the Grecian style 
erected in its place, which, like a pert interloper, contrasts 
most disagreeably with the remainder of the old monastic 
pile. Passing out of this court by another vaulted 
passage, we enter an open square, to the right of which is 
the University library, and at some little distance an 
elegant Doric temple which is greatly admired by those 
who prefer Grecian to Gothic architecture. This is the 
Hunterian Museum, and contains a valuable collection of 
subjects in natural history and anatomy bequeathed by 
the eminent surgeon whose name it bears. Beyond this 
building the College gardens stretch away to a consider- 
able distance. The ground is undulating- — there are 
many trees, and what was once a pleasant country stream 
flows through the gardens ; but Glasgow factories and 
Glasgow smoke have quite spoiled what must once have 
been a delightful retreat from the dust and glare of the 
city. The trees are now quite blackened, the stream 
(named the Molendinar Burn) became so offensive that 
it was found necessary to arch it over, and drifts of stifling 
and noisome smoke trail slowly all day over the College 
gardens. There are no evergreens nor flowers ; and the 
students generally prefer to take their constitutional in the 
purer air of the western outskirts of Glasgow. 

The other changes that have taken place are 
even more far-reaching than those which have 
affected the external appearance and locality of 
the University. In Matheson's day students of 
all ages, from twelve to forty years, might be 
found sitting on the same bench. No conditions 
were exacted as to scholarship. Anyone who 
could pay his fees was entitled to admittance, and 
to all the advantages which the University could 



STUDENT DAYS 



29 



confer. It was a strange sight in those days, not 
so very far distant, to see "the shepherd's son 
from the banks of the Teviot take his place in the 
class-room with the son of the Lord of Session, or 
of the country squire, with nothing to mark his 
social inferiority." This may still be found, but 
it is the exception to see the greybeard sitting 
side by side with the youth on whose chin the 
incipient signs of manhood have not as yet begun 
to appear. 

There is a final change which deserves to be 
noted in passing. The struggles which many a 
Scottish lad, who determined to graduate at one 
or other of the Universities of his native land, 
had to face have become a national tradition. 
Scott has immortalised them in his sketch of the 
early career of Dominie Sampson. That their 
son 4 ' might wag his pow in a pulpit the poor 
parents pinched and pared, rose early and lay 
down late, ate dry bread and drank cold water." 
Sampson himself, as the representative of a type, 
is described as slinking " from College by the 
most secret paths he could discover, and plunging 
himself into his most miserable lodging, where 
for eighteen-pence a week he was allowed the 
benefit of a straw mattress, and, if his landlady 
was in good humour, permission to study his 
task by her fire." There may be some exaggera- 
tion in all this, but, making every allowance, a 
fair proportion of Scottish students of the olden 
time had to fight hard for the means which would 



30 



STUDENT DAYS 



enable them to keep body and soul together 
while attending the University. Private teaching 
in winter while the College was in Session, and 
manual labour in summer during the Long Vaca- 
tion, was the order of the day for many. The self- 
sacrifice of the parents, and even of brothers and 
sisters, gave a pathetic interest to the student's 
struggle, and helped not a little to form that 
special type of character for which Scotland is 
famous. Many causes have arisen during the 
last half century to change all this. The country 
itself has increased vastly in wealth ; bursaries 
and scholarships have been greatly multiplied ; 
Mr. Carnegie has stepped in with his princely 
benefaction to abolish class fees and to endow 
research ; Societies and Churches are founding 
hostels for the cheap and comfortable housing of 
the students, so that learning, which in past days 
a Scottish lad had to fight for, so to speak, with 
the naked sword, is being now administered by a 
silver spoon. What effect this may have on the 
future of the national character time alone can 
tell. 

The Scottish University system in vogue in 
Matheson's day, as will readily be seen, afforded 
a good training for character. It was free, in- 
dependent, and gave room for the mingling 
together of many varieties of social rank and 
mental attainment. Types, as far asunder as the 
poles, were brought together in a common centre, 
and the battle of life, which the youthful com- 



STUDENT DAYS 



31 



batants would have to wage to the end, was there 
and then begun, under the conditions that would 
prevail all through. Matheson threw himself 
heartily into University life, and his bright intellect 
and undoubted powers, which would have gained 
him distinction under any circumstances, were 
enhanced in the estimation of his fellow-students 
by his constant cheerfulness and hopefulness, 
which to them seemed nothing less than marvellous 
in view of the physical disadvantage under which 
he laboured. No student of his time was more 
popular than he, and fond memories of him are 
cherished to this day by surviving contemporaries. 

It was fortunate for young Matheson that he 
began his College life under the most favourable 
circumstances. There was no need for him to 
struggle for existence ; he had every comfort in 
his home. Had it been otherwise the world might 
have been so much the poorer, for we cannot 
conceive how it would have been possible for him 
to struggle at one and the same time against 
poverty and the loss of sight. The fire of his 
genius might not have been quenched, but his 
intellectual training would in all likelihood have 
had to be sacrificed. It would have been better 
perhaps if he had remained a year longer at 
school, but it was the custom then to enter College 
at a comparatively early age. He more than made 
up for whatever loss he may have sustained 
through not taking the last year at Glasgow 
Academy by attending for nine sessions at the 



32 



STUDENT DAYS 



University. This embraced a period of eight 
years and a half, and during that time the eager 
student subjected himself to the most rigorous 
mental discipline, and laid the foundation of his 
future distinction. 

It was in the autumn of 1857 that he first 
matriculated as a student of Glasgow University, 
and enrolled himself in the classes of Junior Latin 
and Junior Greek. His professors were William 
Ramsay and Edmund Law Lushington. Even 
the students of to-day are familiar with these two 
names, so deep a mark did the possessors of 
them make on the University. They were both 
eminent scholars and distinguished teachers. 
Matheson was only fifteen years of age at the 
time, and notwithstanding that for the study of 
languages the heaviest handicap is imperfect eye- 
sight, he gained an honourable place in the prize 
list of the Latin Class, and in the following year 
as a Senior Student he won the third prize for 
general eminence. One of my earliest recollec- 
tions is Matheson's appearance, during his first 
year as minister of Innellan, at the annual ex- 
amination of the school, which in those days was 
conducted by the Presbytery. I was among the 
few scholars who had been prepared by the teacher 
to appear for the Latin examination, and I re- 
member distinctly Matheson's intervention and 
correction of some mistake unchecked by the 
schoolmaster. His knowledge of the ancient lang- 
uage had not been allowed to grow rusty, and the 



/ 



STUDENT DAYS 



33 



impression which he made upon the pupils of the 
Parish School by his command of the Latin tongue 
on this memorable occasion was perhaps more 
profound than that made on their parents by his 
eloquent preaching. 

It was in the Philosophical Classes, however, 
that his special gifts displayed themselves in their 
full power. It was in Session 1859-60 that he 
became a student in the Logic Class under Pro- 
fessor Robert Buchanan, fondly and familiarly 
known by his pupils as " Logic Bob." Buchanan 
was from all accounts one of the ablest and best 
teachers that Glasgow University ever possessed. 
He more than divided the honours of his day with 
William Ramsay, the Professor of Humanity. He 
was a minister of the Church of Scotland, and had 
filled the charge of Peebles for eleven years when 
he was appointed assistant and successor to Mr. 
Jardine, the Professor of Logic in Glasgow 
University. Buchanan occupied this chair from 
1827 to 1864, when he resigned. As an author 
he cultivated the drama, and published, among 
other works, Wallace: A Tragedy. It appeared 
in 1856, and six years later it was performed in 
one of the theatres in Glasgow by a number of the 
students of the time. Not a few of those who 
received instruction at his hand are still to be found 
in Scottish manses, and, without exception, they 
speak with the highest praise of his ability as a 
teacher, and of the charm of his character. A 
fellow-student of Matheson's, the Rev. Thomas 
3 



34 



STUDENT DAYS 



Carruthers, minister of the United Free Church 
at Bridge of Weir, and himself a prizeman in 
the Logic Class, gives the following account of 
Buchanan's course and method : — 

He lectured from the beginning of November till 
Christmas on Psychology, or, as it was called, Metaphysics. 
He treated the subject like Reid in his Intellectual 
Powers. The lectures were not influenced by Sir William 
Hamilton or German philosophers, yet so great was 
Buchanan's fame as a practical teacher, that Sir William 
Hamilton sent his sons to study under him. His lectures 
were exact and clear, and in questioning students he was 
very sympathetic. He would frequently say to a student 
who answered his question imperfectly, " Follow up that 
idea." From the new year to the end of March he 
lectured on Logic. Most of the time was spent on the 
deductive logic of Aristotle, but the inductive logic of 
Bacon was also clearly expounded. No students could 
be more thoroughly drilled in Terms, Propositions, 
Syllogisms, etc., than those who studied under this prince 
of teachers. At the close of the session, for about a 
fortnight, he gave lectures on Rhetoric. That was all 
the teaching Matheson got in English Literature, for the 
Chair of English Literature, with Professor Nichol as 
occupant, was only instituted when he was finishing his 
Arts Curriculum. Though he became so eminent as an 
English writer, his degree did not include English 
Literature; but the orator, like the poet, is born not 
made. 

Buchanan's influence over his students did not 
depend entirely upon his lectures, excellent though 
they were. He possessed in a high degree the 
power of drawing out whatever knowledge the stu- 
dents may have had, by his method of oral examina- 
tion. "The perfect quiet of his manner," remarks 
Professor Stewart, in his University of Glasgow, 



STUDENT DAYS 



35 



Old and New, " the clearness of his thinking 
and expression, and the occasional rapier thrust 
of his wit, made him master in the class-room 
without effort ; and though averse to original 
speculation, he had a wonderful power of awaken- 
ing in his students an interest in the problems 
of intellectual philosophy. The veneration and 
gratitude of his former pupils," he adds, " have 
preserved his memory to succeeding generations 
in the Buchanan prizes, which, founded in 1866, 
are annually awarded to the most distinguished 
students in the classes of Logic, Moral Phil- 
osophy, and English Literature." Distinction in the 
Philosophical Classes has been invariably regarded 
by Scottish students as the test of intellectual 
eminence. However successful a man may be 
in Classics or Mathematics, the blue riband of 
the University is, in the estimation of his fellow- 
students, gained by him who carries off the chief 
prizes in Logic and Moral Philosophy. Glasgow 
University has from the days of John Cameron 
been noted for its freedom in speculation, and for 
the distinguished men who have occupied its 
Philosophical Chairs. Among them have been 
Gershom Carmichael, Francis Hutcheson, Adam 
Smith, Thomas Reid, Robert Buchanan, and 
Edward Caird. It may be said that it was when 
he joined the Class of Logic that Matheson ex- 
perienced his first real intellectual awakening. He 
proved himself to be easily head and shoulders 
above every competitor, and was unanimously 



36 



STUDENT DAYS 



voted by his fellow-students the first prize in the 
Senior Division for general eminence, and a like 
honour was conferred on him by his professor for an 
essay on the best specimen of Socratic Dialogue. 

Three of his contemporaries, who have favoured 
me with reminiscences of this period of his life, 
testify to the strong and lasting impression which 
he made both on his professor and class-fellows. 
He shone particularly in the oral examinations and 
in the essays set by the professor and recited to 
the class by the students when called upon. These 
essays, which formed a special feature of the work 
of the session, did not occupy more than eight 
minutes in their delivery. In the case of Matheson 
they were necessarily committed to memory, and 
the command of English style which he, at that 
early age, displayed, together with his inborn 
gifts as an orator, took the class by storm. " My 
recollection of his appearance," says an old fellow- 
student, 

in the Logic Class in 1859-60 is vivid. He was far and 
above any other student. I often made up to him on the 
road to the Old College, as he would be going along 
George Street and into Albion Street and College Street. 
He knew one's voice, and having seized his arm he would 
say, "Oh, is that you, Young?" His talk was always 
interesting, nothing pedantic ; and he gave a most hearty 
laugh as one told him some fresh story or joke. We had 
as students to stand up when " Logic Bob " would 
examine us orally. Matheson was always ready, and 
never appeared to be without an answer. His memory 
was magnificent. More than once he recited the contents 
of his essay. The subject on one occasion was the 
" Association of Ideas as illustrated by Milton's Paradise 



STUDENT DAYS 



37 



Lost, First Book, 1 Satan's Palace of Pandemonium.' " The 
professor asked Mr. Matheson to give his essay, which he 
did, and he held the class spellbound by his beautiful 
diction and eloquence. He excelled in imagery, and often 
borrowed illustrations from nature. The class broke into 
frequent applause. At the end, the ruffing of the feet 
was so great that the dust of centuries was disturbed and 
one could hardly breathe. The professor characterised 
the essay as the finest he had, listened to in his experience 
of thirty years, and then pictured the various famous men 
who had sat in the class-room. One, I remember, he 
referred to with feelings of pride, was Archibald Campbell 
Tait, Archbishop of Canterbury, who had sat as a student 
in bench xvi., the same, I think, which Matheson occupied. 
He made various complimentary remarks, and wound up 
by prophesying that, if health were given to him, Matheson 
would adorn the calling to which he aspired. 

Mr. Carruthers, who has already been quoted, 
would seem to have been impressed by another of 
Matheson's essays. " One day," he remarks, 
" Matheson was called upon to give his essay on the 
' Acquired Perceptions of Sight.' He did not read 
but delivered it from memory. Two impressions 
in that oration cling to me. He described the 
babe learning to distinguish distance by light and 
shade as the 'infant philosopher,' and he illustrated 
a certain point by saying, ' You do not despise the 
rose for the thorn that lurks underneath.' These 
expressions showed the boy, at College, to have 
been father to the man, in the pulpit." 

It was, however, on the closing days of the 
College, when Buchanan, according to custom, 
invited his students to engage in a great debate, 
that Matheson made his most brilliant appearance. 



38 



STUDENT DAYS 



" A charming April day," writes the Rev. Thomas 
Gordon, minister at Edgerston, 

in the session which extended from November 1859 to 
the Kalends of May 1860, rises to my recollection, as we 
came down to the Logic Class in the mediaeval Quadrangle 
of the Old College in the High Street, where Robert 
Buchanan gave students their first lesson in Logic and 
Rhetoric. The professor had prescribed an oration to 
last no more than eight minutes. Each student was to 
come prepared to take his place, if called on, in the 
arranged discussion, which was to be carried over two or 
three days. The subject was an imaginary debate in the 
Canadian Senate as to whether " Canada being now 
ready for a Constitution, ought that Constitution to be a 
Limited Monarchy, with one of the sons of the British 
monarch as sovereign, or ought it to be a Republic ? " As 
a Junior Student I remember having taken the Republican's 
side, and was thereby perhaps all the more forcibly 
impressed by the oration of Matheson, who took the 
opposite side. He charmed his professor, and carried 
away his youthful audience until we almost seemed to 
forget where we were. When the deafening rounds of 
applause had ceased, Buchanan said : " Your oration, Mr. 
Matheson, is not only creditable to yourself, but it is an 
honour to the class of which you are a member " ; and 
turning to the class, he said : "I do not wonder you are 
pleased with that, Gentlemen." 

This essay still remains in the original form in 
which it was written. The paper is of the finest 
quality, with the leaves tied together with a blue 
ribbon. It bears the title, " Oration delivered in 
the Logic Class on Friday 21st April i860," 
and is signed " George Matheson." Mr. Gordon 
quotes a part of it with wonderful accuracy. We 
shall give an extract from the manuscript itself, 
as a specimen of the young orator's method. One 



STUDENT DAYS 



39 



can well understand, on reading it, how, when 
delivered with all the fire and enthusiasm of 
which Matheson was capable, it left so indelible 
an impression on his audience : 

It has been said, Gentlemen, that the word Republic 
means fraternity, but ask history in what Republic 
fraternity is to be found? Ask the United States, and 
the chains of three million slaves shall answer: Not 
here! Ask the France of last century, and the Reign 
of Terror will respond : Not here ! Ask the Florence of 
the Middle Ages, and the wandering Dante shall respond : 
Not here! Ask ancient Rome, and the exiled Scipio 
shall respond : Not here ! Ask Carthage, and the banished 
Hannibal shall respond : Not here ! Ask Athens, and the 
dying Socrates shall respond : Not here ! It has been 
said, Gentlemen, that the word Republic means liberty. 
It may be so, but it is the liberty of the planet that 
has broken loose from its centrifugal force and is rush- 
ing on through space into annihilation. It is the liberty 
of the mind that has burst the restraints of freedom and 
is borne along to ruin by a current of angry and con- 
tending passions. It is the liberty of the ship that has 
lost its rudder and is drifting with the winds and the 
waves to destruction. It has been said, Gentlemen, that 
the word Republic means equality. But I say that the 
constitutional monarchy is the only sphere of true 
equality. There is not a citizen of Britain this day 
who cannot stand up and proclaim himself an equal 
part of its Government, an indispensable item of its 
Constitution. If the King have a sovereign power to 
act, it is from the community that this power emanates. 
If there is' boundless wealth at the disposal of royalty, 
it is the community that furnishes it. 

Matheson's other chief success in the Logic 
Class, and perhaps his most remarkable one, was 
his specimen of the Socratic Dialogue on a subject 
set by Buchanan: " The Volunteer Movement: 



40 



STUDENT DAYS 



Ought Britain to Arm?" His essay was awarded 
the first prize. It took the form of a Dialogue 
between Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Bright, and is pre- 
faced by the following Explanatory Note : — " It 
is here presumed that Mr. Disraeli, being aware 
that Mr. Bright is opposed to the Volunteer 
System, and being also conscious of certain very 
sensible opinions entertained by that gentleman, 
draws him out for the purpose of refuting him 
by his own sentiments, and touches such springs 
of thought as are calculated to elicit a declaration 
of them." This essay is much more matured in 
thought than the speech in support of a monarchical 
form of government for Canada, and more chaste 
and moderate in expression. Taking the two 
together we find in Matheson the born artist. 
He adapted both his matter and manner to his 
subject and audience. He carried away his 
youthful hearers by an oration set on a key 
suited to their eager spirits, and in the dialogue 
he reasoned out his thesis in a way to enlist the 
sympathy and to secure the approval of his learned 
professor. It is a capital specimen of the Socratic 
method, as the two following extracts will show. 
Bright had declared, in reply to Disraeli, that a 
well-regulated imagination is the most useful of 
all our intellectual powers, mainly for the reason 
that it develops a most commendable self-esteem. 
This thought is elaborated as follows : 

There are individuals of the race of Adam who have 
never known themselves ; to whom praise and censure, 



STUDENT DAYS 



41 



honour and disgrace, exalted excellence and moral de- 
gradation, are terms as insignificant as colours to the 
blind. Born in a low sphere, breathing from childhood 
a pestilential vapour, and looking around them upon 
nothing but squalidity and beggary, these wretched out- 
casts of society have, from the earliest dawn of reason, 
learned to loathe themselves. To them the word man 
is associated only with certain physical peculiarities, 
but the ideas of rationality, of nobility, of grandeur and 
progress, have never once been annexed to it. Famine 
has hunted them down ; the higher and middle classes 
have ignored their existence, and they have always im- 
agined the commission of crime to be their vocation. 
And yet how little has been achieved by the contempt 
of their superiors. They still swarm in our streets, crowd 
our highways, and infect our very atmosphere. But 
could you by any language convey to these miscreants 
a definition of the human mind, could you make them 
know, not the nature of legal punishment, but the latent 
good in their own natures, I am convinced you would 
effect more than all the proscriptions, ignominy, and scorn, 
which have for ages been heaped upon them by a 
censorious public, 

Disraeli all through contented himself by put- 
ting questions to Bright which would elicit the 
very answers that he desired ; and after having got 
the " tribune of the people," as he called him, com- 
mitted to certain propositions, he turned the tables 
upon him, and wound up the dialogue as follows : 

Enough, Mr. Bright. I was previously made cognisant 
that such were the sentiments entertained by you, but I 
wished to elicit them from your own lips. And how, then, 
can you, who hold such manly principles, reconcile them 
with your opposition to the Volunteer System ? If I ever 
had any doubts on the subject, your conclusive reasoning 
would have convinced me that it is a social, moral, and 
commercial good. You have admitted the frequency of 



42 



STUDENT DAYS 



crime amongst the lower classes, and you have held that 
nothing can tend so much to eradicate it as a conviction 
of self-dignity, importance, duty, and responsibility. The 
country has acted up to your wise suggestion. It is 
about to put arms into the hands of the artisans and the 
working populace, to let them feel that they are citizens 
of the land and bound to protect its rights and privileges. 
Inasmuch, then, as this is an elevation of honest pride, 
and consequently a comparative restraint from the com- 
mission of enormities, you must admit it is a legitimate 
inference, from your own premises, to be a social good. 
Again, you have stated that the poor are held in contempt 
by the rich, and you have affirmed that the best allevia- 
tion of this contempt would be the mutual dependence of 
all ranks. Once more, Mr. Bright, has the country acted 
on your suggestion, for by putting weapons into the hands 
of the populace she is about to make the middle classes 
feel that they are in a measure indebted for their safety 
and their prosperity to the brawny arms and the dauntless 
hearts of the sons of toil. Nay, more, you have said that 
the secret of all security is confidence in our own strength, 
and that the absence of this confidence engenders jealous 
anxieties. Inasmuch, then, as it is the cure of pride, and 
the promoter of tranquillity, you have admitted the 
Volunteer System to be a moral good. And, finally, you 
have affirmed that the true cause of flourishing trade in 
France during the Napoleonic struggles was the con- 
sciousness of impregnability. Our land has been recently 
visited with severe commercial panics ; at every breath of 
war the funds have fallen fifty millions in a day. But 
you, Sir, have pointed out a remedy: Let us be impregnable, 
you say, and not tossed about at the mercy of every wind. 
A third time, Mr. Bright, has the country acted on your 
suggestion, and it only remains for experience to prove 
the justice of your reasoning when you desire social 
comforts, moral benefits, and mercantile advantages from 
the Volunteer Movement. 

The closing day of the session, when the 
professors, students, and their friends were present 



STUDENT DAYS 



43 



in the Common Hall at the distribution of prizes, 
took place on May Day, and the scene is thus 
described in Hamilton's romance of Cyril 
Thornton : 

The first of May is the day fixed by immemorial 
usage in the University for the distribution of the prizes, 
a day looked forward to with " hopes and fears that kindle 
hope " by many youthful and ardent spirits. The Great 
Hall of the College on that day certainly presents a very 
pleasing and animated spectacle. The academical dis- 
tinctions are bestowed with much of ceremonial pomp, in 
the presence of a vast concourse of spectators, and it is 
not uninteresting to mark the flush of bashful triumph on 
the cheek of the victor, the sparkling of his downcast eye 
as the Hall is rent with loud applause when he advances 
to receive the badge of honour assigned him by the voice 
of his fellow-students. It is altogether a sight to stir the 
spirit in the youthful bosom, and stimulate into healthy 
action faculties which but for such excitement might have 
continued in unbroken slumber. 

Matheson, on going up to receive his prizes, met 
with a perfect ovation, which was heightened by 
the memorable eulogium passed upon him by 
Professor Buchanan. The wild assemblage was 
hushed as his aged teacher quoted with deep 
emotion Milton's famous lines on his own blind- 
ness, comparing the youthful scholar to " Blind 
Thamyris and blind Maeonides " : 

Those other two equalled with me in Fate, 
So were I equalled with them in renown. 

This was the red-letter day in Matheson's career 
as a student. He met with equal distinction the 
following year in the Moral Philosophy Class, in 



44 



STUDENT DAYS 



which he took the first prize ; but the Professor, 
Dr. William Fleming, was not the equal of his 
colleague Robert Buchanan. He was incapable 
of creating the same interest in the work of his 
class, and the students treated him with an easy 
tolerance. Matheson graduated B.A. in 1861, the 
last occasion on which this degree was granted with 
" Honourable Distinction in Philosophy," and M.A. 
in 1862. His Arts Course was now finished, and 
in the same year he entered as a student in the 
Divinity Hall. 

This was John Caird's first year as Professor 
of Divinity, and by him a fresh direction was given, 
and a new spirit imparted, to the teaching of 
Theology in Glasgow University. The Divinity 
Faculty was strengthened at this time by the 
founding of the Chair of Biblical Criticism ; its first 
holder being Professor Dickson, a ripe scholar, 
whose wide and accurate erudition was the marvel 
of succeeding generations of students. He was 
admired for his knowledge, and beloved for his 
kind heart. Dr. Duncan Weir was the Professor 
of Hebrew and Oriental Languages. He was a 
born teacher, and although he published little his 
opinion was frequently sought by workers in his 
subject, and greatly valued. He combined with 
his duties as Professor those of Clerk of Senate. 
This was perhaps necessary, for it enabled him to 
add to the salary of his chair, which at that time 
was modest in the extreme. Dr. Thomas Jackson 
was the Professor of Church History. He taught 



STUDENT DAYS 



45 



his subject on philosophical principles, but very- 
few had the patience to understand what they were ; 
and the hour spent in his class was more frequently 
given to wild frolic than to serious study. 

Caird was the man who at that time riveted the 
attention of the students. He came with a great 
reputation as a popular preacher, and he had already 
given one or two indications that he did not intend 
to be bound by the traditional methods of his chair. 
He succeeded Professor Hill, who practically repro- 
duced his father's, Principal Hill's, lectures, and 
anyone who wishes to know the kind of teaching 
that for several generations prevailed in the 
Divinity Faculties of the Scottish Universities 
will find it embodied in the Principal of St. 
Andrews' published volumes. There he will find 
the high- water mark of Scottish theology previous 
to the new trend given to it by contact with the 
speculative theories of German philosophy. Caird 
while at Errol, and afterwards as minister of the 
Park Church, Glasgow, had been turning his mind 
towards the new light that was shining from the 
Continent. He had been gradually working his 
way into the speculative ideas of the great German 
thinkers. He was beginning to be influenced 
by Hegel, and after a time he accepted him 
as his master, and was in the habit of humbly 
regarding himself as his interpreter. There can 
be no doubt that the Hegelian method has a 
wonderful fascination ; it charms, especially the 
youthful mind ; and in a few years afterwards, when 



46 



STUDENT DAYS 



Caird's brother, Edward, subsequently Master of 
Balliol College, Oxford, became Professor of Moral 
Philosophy in Glasgow University, the spirit of 
Hegel dominated the whole place, for Edward 
Caird had no rival as an exponent of the Hegelian 
philosophy, and his eloquence of thought impressed 
the students quite as much as his more famous 
brother's eloquence of speech. 

If there be any virtue, and if there be any 
praise in this speculative standpoint, then George 
Matheson was John Caird's debtor. It is almost 
certain, however, that an eager mind like his would 
have discovered the Hegelian philosophy for itself. 
The great writers of the day were busy disseminat- 
ing German ideas. Carlyle, and Coleridge before 
him, had done their part, and there were other 
workers in the field. In any case the first period of 
Matheson's life as a writer was strongly influenced 
by the spirit and method of Hegel. He came 
afterwards to doubt the absolutism of the system. 
" Facts are chiels that winna ding," and however 
attractive the rhythm of the Hegelian philosophy 
may have been to a poetic mind like his, he, like 
many others, found that there are "more things in 
heaven and earth " than were dreamt of even by 
the great Teutonic thinker. 

Matheson had as contemporaries in the Divinity 
Hall not a few who afterwards rose to distinction 
in the Church. They must have been a very able 
set of students. Among the prizemen of his year 
were Matheson himself, Professor Stewart of 



STUDENT DAYS 



47 



Glasgow University; Rev. Dr. M'Lean, St. 
Columba's, Glasgow ; Rev. Dr. Blair, St. John's, 
Edinburgh ; Rev. Robert Thomson, Rubislaw, 
Aberdeen ; and the Rev. Dr. D. M. Gordon, 
Principal of Queens University, Kingston, Canada. 
One of them, the Rev. Mr. Thomson of Aberdeen, 
who was afterwards, when minister of Rothesay, 
Matheson's co- Presbyter, has favoured me with the 
following reminiscences of him when a student in 
the Divinity Hall : — 

Among the students of my time at the Glasgow 
Divinity Hall, no one stands out more prominently in 
the retrospect than George Matheson. It would be 
about as difficult to recall the professors without thinking 
of Dr. Caird, as to recall the students without thinking of 
Matheson. Not only was he a distinguished student in 
the sense of taking prizes, — others were distinguished in 
the same way who have left no abiding impression on the 
memory, — his distinction lay in the uniqueness of his 
personality. Students have their groups and coteries, but 
you could hardly rank him with any of these. He was 
quite unlike the rank and file, quite unlike the ordinary 
prizeman. There was a something that marked him off 
from all the others. It is difficult to say precisely in 
what this uniqueness consisted ; many things probably 
were contributory. One of its obvious features was an 
unmistakable exuberance of emotional and intellectual 
life. His laughter was the biggest and heartiest in the 
College quadrangle, being equalled, however, by his 
tenderness and sensibility. One was not surprised at any 
flight of eloquence in which he might indulge, or indeed 
at any intellectual exploits ever so far remote from the 
conventional routine. That a sober-minded professor 
should attempt to keep him within bounds suggested, in 
a small way, an attempt to harness Pegasus. When, on 
a certain occasion, word was passed round that a poem 
by Matheson was actually published in one of the 



48 



STUDENT DAYS 



magazines — the Sunday Magazine^ if I mistake not — no 
one was surprised. That he should write a poem, and 
have it accepted and published by a recognised magazine, 
so far from being incredible, seemed in his case the most 
natural thing in the world, and quite in keeping with all 
we knew of him. Though he was undoubtedly ambitious, 
in the best sense, he never sought to gratify his ambition 
at the expense of others ; however conspicuous his success, 
no feeling of jealousy was left behind in the breasts of 
any of his fellow-students. Theirs rather was a just pride 
in the exploits of their gifted class-fellow ; everyone had 
a share in the reflected glory that fell on the class of 
which he was a member, and on the whole Divinity Hall. 

He was, of course, as we all were, fortunate in his 
professors. One and all, they were eminently qualified to 
act as guides. Those were the days when we sat spell- 
bound under the vivid and inspiring teaching of Dr. 
Caird, then newly appointed to the Divinity Chair. We 
students felt ourselves of no small importance when the 
appointment was made, and we realised that the great 
preacher who drew enormous crowds Sunday after 
Sunday to the Park Church, among which every Divinity 
student, I suppose, squeezed his way inside the doors, was 
now to be our very own, and that we should have him all 
to ourselves. Great things certainly were expected, and 
we were not disappointed. The teaching itself was 
supremely instructive. The methods of the modern 
science of history were brought to bear on theology. 
The best things in Schleiermacher and Hegel shed fresh 
light on eighteenth-century maxims. In Dr. Caird's 
luminous presentation, theology seemed to us a veritable 
Queen among the Sciences. Even more than the matter 
of the teaching was the manner of it. Earnestness and 
fervour were always present ; so also the spirit of reverence, 
" the angel of the world," against which did the audacity 
of even the most brilliant student transgress in the 
slightest measure, prompt suppression followed. Above 
all | there was the supremacy of Christ, "of Him, and 
through Him, and to Him, are all things," in the forefront 
of all Dr. Caird's teaching. That One was their Master, 



STUDENT DAYS 



49 



even Christ, was burned into the minds of the students 
with a power which they can never forget. 

The influence of such a teacher on a nature so sensitive 
and high-strung as that of Matheson, everyone can see. 
Matheson used to listen with rapt attention to the fervid 
eloquence of his teacher, drinking it in with avidity, and 
silently assimilating it. So thorough was the assimilation 
that long years afterwards, when listening to Dr. Matheson 
at the height of his fame, and in his most original excur- 
sions, one seemed now and again to hear faint echoes of 
the old teaching which had been our inspiration in the 
Divinity class-room. 

It so happened that during Dr. Matheson's ministry at 
Innellan he and I were co-Presbyters. It was hardly to 
be expected that he should attend meetings of Presbytery, 
nor do I remember ever to have seen him present. It 
was well known that he was engaged in systematic study. 
His co-Presbyters understood that he was simply biding 
his time, and that in due course he would emerge from 
the seclusion of Innellan and fill a wider sphere — a forecast 
which the event amply justified. 

I have received the following account of 
Matheson's first sermon from one of his fellow- 
students, the Rev. Dr. Somerville, of Blackfriars 
Parish, Glasgow. The discourse was delivered 
while he was still in the Divinity Hall, and the 
account is so interesting that I have great pleasure 
in giving it in full : 

In our day we had to prepare in the first session of 
our Divinity Hall course the Homily, a discourse on a 
text given out by the professor. And no sooner had we 
finished the Homily, and rehearsed it before our teacher 
and our fellow-students, receiving his criticism in public 
and their observations in private, than we looked round 
for a suitable place of worship in which to deliver it. 
Matheson, like the rest of us, was desirous to let his light 
shine. The opportunity came when he was in his second 
4 



50 



STUDENT DAYS 



session ; his friend David Strong, now the Rev. Dr. Strong, 
of Hillhead Parish, Glasgow, was then acting as College 
Missionary, and it was his duty to have evening service in 
the Parish schoolroom of the College Church in High 
Street, of which I became in later years the minister. He 
had occasion to be away, and he asked Matheson to take 
his place. It was also the custom for the associates of 
each student to go in a body to judge of their friend's 
effort. 

Matheson duly intimated to the fraternity the coming 
event, and we turned out in full force to hear him. We 
expected the Homily which had been delivered in the 
Hall, but we did not get it. Matheson had made special 
preparation, and had chosen as his theme the text 
" Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His 
saints." Young as he was, and young as I was, I have 
never forgotten the sermon. It had the freshness and 
originality that were characteristic of him in the after days. 
Darwin's book on Evolution had been published a short 
time before, and Matheson's sermon instead of rehearsing, 
after the stereotyped fashion, the joys of the believer, and 
the victory in the last act, was upon spiritual evolution. 
Death is the gate to a larger sphere and a higher service. 
One of his illustrations was so vivid that I have never for- 
gotten it. " Death is the gate to higher work and purer 
joys. Here on earth everything ripens except man. The 
fruits ripen every year. A longer season would make 
them no bigger and no better, but what man ever came to 
full maturity. Even in the most saintly there are faculties 
not fully developed, affections not applied to the highest 
objects. Are these never to ripen or to do their highest 
work ? Is there no sphere where the good and the gifted 
shall come to the perfection of their full power? The 
saints, as we term them, those who have grown in grace 
and knowledge, are as the plants of promise removed by 
death from this cold world to another, more congenial, in 
which they will grow in beauty and in strength, and find 
sweet exercise for each function. Life, long or short, is but 
a waiting to be born into a higher sphere, and death is 
the birth-angel." 



STUDENT DAYS 



51 



I can only say that if before we had thought that 
Matheson would be a great poet, but would not be a great 
preacher, because of his physical defect, we were converted 
to a different view. We went to criticise, but we returned 
deeply impressed. " Yes," said one now gone to his rest, 
" George is to be the Caird of the next generation." 

The sermon still remains among Matheson's papers, 
and its theme was the burden of his thought to 
the end. 



CHAPTER III 
RECESS STUDIES 

George Matheson was a thoroughly representa- 
tive student. He was not a mere bookworm who 
confined himself constantly to his desk and refused 
to take part in the social side of University life. 
He had a big heart, and felt in sympathy with 
everything human, even with those animal spirits 
which now and again broke forth. They, too, 
served their purpose ; they prevented the youthful 
competitors who strove for class honours from 
having their friendship broken by too keen a 
rivalry, or from degenerating into mere "intellec- 
tuals." Both at home and at College he entered 
fully into the side interests of life, and no one 
enjoyed more than he the pleasures of poetry, 
of music, of literature and society. " When a 
student," writes his brother, "he was very fond of 
hearing a good play in the theatre, and when a 
distinguished Shakesperian actor like Vandenhoff 
came to Glasgow he never missed the opportunity. 
Music was one of his favourite pastimes, and many 
a night saw him at the opera when the great stars, 



RECESS STUDIES 



53 



Titiens, Giuglini, Grisi, Santley, and others, were 
in the ascendant. His school-friend, Mr. James 
Hotson, whom we have already quoted, gives the 
following reminiscences of this period of his life 
and of this phase of his character : — 

Meanwhile, and after he had gone to College, I saw a 
good deal of him in private life. My father had a pretty 
large library, and I frequently read to Matheson or talked 
with him of books and kindred subjects when he came 
down to smoke with me. Byron was our first idol. Later 
on we came to prefer others, such as Wordsworth, Tenny- 
son, and Longfellow. Matheson would recite pieces from 
these authors with great expression. In particular I can 
recall " Tears, Idle Tears," portions of In Memoriam, and 
the " Ode on Immortality," as also the closing stanzas of 
Evangeline. Among novelists we ranked Bulwer Lytton 
high above either Dickens or Thackeray. This was, I 
remember, owing to his wide range of subjects, his 
scholarship, and the philosophical trend of a number of his 
novels. I remember one evening we were expressing our 
views to this effect when my late brother William struck 
in and maintained that there was nothing in all Bulwer 
to equal Pickwick. He also enjoyed humorous writers. 
I remember how hugely tickled he was with the student's 
" Fox Song " in Longfellow's Hyperion, with its " Sa, 
Sa, Leathery Fox." Our final favourite was Carlyle, to 
whom Matheson took from the very first reading. He 
became so familiarised with the Carlylese style that one 
evening at a meeting of a literary society, criticising an 
essay which had just been read, he remarked that the 
essayist appeared to have had Carlyle in view as a model. 
This society would probably be " The Clifton Literary," 
which met weekly in the smallest of the Queen's Rooms. 
It was started by a number of Academy boys who had 
just left school and gone into orifices, and our patron was 
no less a personage than Dr. Pritchard, afterwards the 
celebrated poisoner. Even then, from the " Munchausen " 
flavour of some of his adventures, as he related them, we 



54 



RECESS STUDIES 



began to " smoke " him. After he had made his exit from 
the world no successor was appointed. It would have 
been awkward to have had to minute that " So-and-so 
was elected as patron, vice Dr. Pritchard suspended!' 

My late brother William was a law student while 
Matheson was in Divinity, and, it being election time, 
they became in some measure associated, both belonging 
to the Conservative side. The Conservative candidate 
for the Lord Rectorship was Lord Glencorse (Inglis), and 
his opponent was the Lord Advocate (Moncreiff). There 
was great enthusiasm among the students, and Matheson 
became a very popular speaker among his party. I 
remember of him being present at a small gathering of 
young folks at our house one evening, when William and 
another student, John Fraser, came in, and said there 
had been a great meeting of students, and Matheson had 
been loudly clamoured for. A verse of one of the 
election songs ran — 

Confound the Radicals in a heap, 

Hurrah, Hurrah ! 
Their candidate to pot we'll sweep, 

Hurrah, Hurrah ! 
But prosper every bonnet blue, 
And Johnny Inglis our Rector new. 

The prophecy of the song came true, Inglis was elected. 

Matheson always seemed to enjoy life thoroughly and 
to take an interest in all that was going on. He once 
remarked to me, " I don't know how it may be with you 
people, but we of the Establishment see life whole, and as 
a consequence, I think, more truly." This philosophic, 
and indeed religious, standpoint conditioned his outlook, 
and enabled him to relish a good song or a good story 
quite as much as a good book or a good sermon. 
Although, as I have heard him admit, he knew nothing 
of music theoretically, he could appreciate it, and himself 
sing with true expression. The best songs of the more 
sentimental class were probably "The Harp that once 
through Tara's Halls," " Believe me if all these endearing 
young charms," and the "Irish Brigade"; while among 



RECESS STUDIES 55 



humorous ones he excelled in " Three Jolly Post-Boys " 
and " Agus O ! " the latter being a Highland woman's 
lament for her child ; but better, perhaps, than any of 
these were his imitations of a young lady's singing. He 
had a command of the falsetto register such as I never 
knew equalled, rendering an entire melody in it with the 
greatest of ease, and the result was extremely comical. 
I have seen some of his auditors almost in fits, and he 
himself, when the performance was finished, seemed to 
enjoy it quite as much as anyone. His two principal 
songs of this class were " A Father's Love," and " Sweet 
Spirit, hear my Prayer." It is hard to say which of them 
was first favourite. He also told a good story ; he had 
any number of them about the clergy, some of them not 
very complimentary to that body. Perhaps as entertain- 
ing as any was "the late Rev. Mr. Davidson of Arran's 
Courtship, as narrated by himself." 

Matheson was a born actor ; the histrionic 
faculty was strongly developed in him. He could, 
single-handed, entertain an audience for hours ; 
and while a student, and even after he became a 
minister, he occasionally gratified a select number 
of friends with an exhibition of his gifts. He 
was also a wonderful mimic. He naturally 
dropped the practice of this harmless accomplish- 
ment as he grew older. Experience taught him 
that even the greatest can be touched to the quick, 
when the gifts on which they pride themselves 
are caricatured by others. Matheson relieved 
the strain of study by other means. The stated 
course of reading which his class work demanded 
was supplemented by another, which was even 
more congenial to him. He delighted from his 
earliest years in poetry. Indeed, he was a poet 



56 



RECESS STUDIES 



before he was a philosopher or a theologian, and 
although his professional studies in the end got 
the upper hand, his gift of song was never quite 
silent. Not only did it occasionally burst forth, 
but it gave a special note to all he wrote. 
Even his most thoughtful and serious works 
are touched by his native gift, and lifted into a 
sphere in which those who may not be able to 
follow his reasoning find themselves in a congenial 
atmosphere. His appeal to their imagination is 
effective, although his demand upon their logic 
may fail. It is difficult to say at what age he 
first began to write poetry. From the specimen 
already given of his powers, his first flight in song 
must have been before he reached his teens. The 
poem which his class-fellows at the Academy 
admired so much, and caused to be printed, shows 
a knowledge of the technique of the art which 
could not be acquired in a day. A very consider- 
able quantity of these youthful efforts are still in 
manuscript ; many probably were destroyed, but 
enough remains to show the direction in which 
his early genius flowed. 

It was during the summer holidays chiefly 
that he wrote verse. His family were in the 
habit of spending the greater part of each summer 
at one or other of the seaside resorts on the Firth 
of Clyde. Dunoon, Skelmorlie, Row, and Innellan 
were visited in turn, and young Matheson took 
every advantage of the opportunities which these 
charming places afforded. He responded to their 



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57 



beauty, took extreme delight in their many 
attractions, gave free expression to his nature, 
and enjoyed himself to the fullest. Boating was a 
favourite pastime ; and sailing in one or other of 
the many steamboats that plied up and down the 
Firth was a source of great pleasure to him. He 
was well known to captain and crew, with whom 
he was a prime favourite. They showed him 
every courtesy and attention ; and being over- 
whelmed one day with their kindness, he said, " I 

might be " (mentioning some great man), "you 

are so kind to me " ; and the reply was, " We are 
fonder of you than of him." He loved to walk by 
the seashore, and to stand on the pier watching 
the boats coming in ; and to test his power of 
vision, then, alas ! steadily failing, he would tell how 
many funnels they had. He was keenly sensitive 
to his surroundings ; and even to the last he 
selected the place for his summer holiday on the 
ground of its natural attractions. He was more 
alive to the beauty of land and sea than the vast 
majority who have their power of vision. 

It was during one of those summer holidays 
that the first of his Sacred Songs was written. 
They were gradually added to as the years rolled 
by, but many of them, his sister thinks, were com- 
posed while he was a student, and particularly one 
summer while they were resident at Row. An old 
manuscript volume of certain of these Sacred 
Songs still remains, and at the top there is 
inscribed the words "Written in Boyhood." One 



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or two of them are equal to anything that he wrote 
of the same kind afterwards, — with the exception 
of course of his famous hymn, — in particular a poem 
on the " Withered Fig-tree." It bears as a head- 
ing the text — 

" How soon is the Fig-tree withered away? 

Not because the fruit was clinging 
To thy branches, withered tree, 
Came the awful sentence, ringing, 
" Grow not henceforth aught on thee." 

'Twas not time for thee to render 
What required the ripening hours, 
And that Heart so kind, so tender, 
Sought not what surpassed thy powers. 

But amidst the sunshine gleaming, 
Thou didst proudly rear thy head, 
And thy boughs with foliage teeming, 
Falsely to the traveller said : 

" Nature fruit to me has given, 
Earlier than the other trees, 
And the beams of day have striven 
To exalt me over these." 

Many trusted in thy story, 
Hopeful hearts thou didst delude, 
And the very King of Glory 
Came to see thy vaunted good. 

Thy pretentious leaves extending, 
Far and wide in empty show, 
Kept the sunshine from descending 
On the humbler plants below. 

Thine was but the specious beauty 
That attracts the stranger's gaze, 
Lustre more was prized than duty, 
Virtue less desired than praise. 



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59 



Therefore fell those words that blighted, 
Like the fleecy winter's breath ; 
And the charms that once delighted, 
Withered in the grasp of death. 

He composed about this period two long poems, 
of about one thousand lines each, the one dealing 
with a sacred and the other with a classical 
subject. They are both written in blank verse. 
On reading over these two poems one can see, 
at a glance, how blank verse was a much more 
effective measure in Matheson's hand than the 
different forms of metre afterwards chosen by 
him in writing his Sacred Songs. The form of 
versification which hymn-writing demands would 
seem to have cramped his easy flow of thought 
and freedom of expression. This was entirely 
owing to his blindness. It is easy to perceive how 
difficult it would be for anyone without the faculty 
of vision to conform to an artificial and intricate 
measure. In epic verse this difficulty is consider- 
ably lessened, and that is, perhaps, the reason 
why it was chosen by blind Homer and blind 
Milton for their great poems. It seems a pity, 
with the specimens which he has left us, that 
Matheson did not persevere in this form of verse. 
The following account of his poetic labours at this 
time may not be without interest : — 

The poetical genius of George Matheson culminated 
in that beautiful hymn " O Love that wilt not let me 
go," but there were many previous excursions into the 
field of poesy, most of which he strangely suppressed. 
He was a poet before he became a preacher. Some of 



60 RECESS STUDIES 



us who knew him in early years expected that he would 
become famous as one of the great poets of our day. 
I remember that in the summer of 1862 there was a 
company of students resident in Dunoon : D. M. Gordon, 
now Principal Gordon of Queen's University, Canada; 
C. M. Grant, now the Rev. Dr. Grant of Dundee ; Finlay 
M'Donald, late minister of Coupar-Angus ; and Jas. 
Fraser, now minister of Rogers Hill, Nova Scotia. We 
were at a lodging in the East Bay, which came to be 
known as the " Bears' Den." We regularly walked out 
together, and talked on all subjects in heaven and earth. 
Matheson was resident with his parents in one of the 
grander houses of the West Bay, but his spirit of comrade- 
ship was strong, and he always endeavoured to join us 
as we passed towards Morag's Fairy Glen and to the 
Innellan shore ; and he had nearly always a new addition 
to a great poem on which he was then engaged. The 
subject was " Zillah, or the Life before the Flood." 
But strangely enough he would not recite the lines until 
we led him into what he considered suitable surroundings. 
His favourite spot was an opening in the grove under 
Ardmillan, then the residence of Professor Buchanan 
(Logic Bob). We had to lead him to the exact spot 
where the opening Firth could be seen. He was most 
particular about the pose and the outlook, though blind ; 
and then he would begin to recite with all enthusiasm. 
The picture of the youthful Zillah sitting beside the aged 
Methusaleh asking strange, imperious questions, I still 
remember vividly. Some of the lines I remembered 
for many years, and I often wondered why " Zillah " 
did not appear in print. She was one of the factors in 
my literary being. 

The poem to which Dr. Somerville here refers 
bears in its final recension the title " The Last 
of the Antediluvians." It would have been better 
perhaps if Matheson had stuck to his first choice 
and called it " Zillah," for she is the central figure 
of the poem. The subject, as its title suggests, is 



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61 



the Flood, and it is treated with much dramatic 
power and poetic insight and grace. We have 
on the one hand Lamech and his three sons, who 
represent the Spirit of the world ; and on the other, 
Noah and his three sons, who represent the Spirit 
that is above the world. These characters, in their 
various intercourse, bring into prominence the 
conflict of thought and aspiration which justified 
the Flood. As a mediating influence is Zillah, 
the daughter of Jubal, and the beloved of Japheth, 
who would save her from the impending doom. 
The story of her fate, the descriptions of the Flood, 
with the emotions and passions that filled the hearts 
and distracted the minds of the proud spirits that 
defied and denied Jehovah, are strikingly graphic. 
The young poet traces his characters with a firm 
hand ; and there is passage after passage which 
show how well in his early years he used his 
eyes. Many in after years were often surprised 
at the minute knowledge which he possessed of 
natural objects. Anyone who reads this poem 
will notice how clearly he saw and how closely he 
observed. If genius consists in the power of 
seeing, Matheson surely possessed it ; and what 
he did see in his youth left an image on his mind 
that time could never erase. 

Our first glimpse of Zillah is when she attracts 
the notice of Methusaleh, who is sitting at the door 
of Lamech's tent, to which he had been carried by 
Jubal, who thought that in this way he would avert 
the calamity of the Flood ; for Methusaleh, being a 



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good man, God would surely not destroy him. If 
he were prevented from finding shelter in the ark 
the threatened deluge would be stayed. This 
stratagem the sons of Lamech thought would at 
once throw discredit on Noah's prophecy and save 
themselves. Methusaleh, sitting sadly at the door 
of the tent, longs to return to his own people : 

He turned his eyes upon the endless deep, 
Which mirrored back the radiant smile of morn, 
And on the margin of its shore descried 
A child, intent on that unfathomed world ; 
A girlish form, more ripe in thoughts than years. 
She caught his eye, with timid steps drew near, 
And naively asked : " What lies beneath the sea ? 
Surely some land as beautiful as ours, 
For nature here has tried to mimic earth ; 
And when the moon is lighted in our sky, 
In the great sea another moon is hung, 
And there are voices like the sounds of song, 
And sometimes tones like those of human grief. 
Perhaps we too dwell down below a sea. 
Is not yon heaven like a great ocean, blue, 
And on its surface may not spirits float, 
And wonder who are we that dwell beneath ? 

Japheth, in pleading with his father for liberty 
to take Zillah into the ark, thus describes her : 

My father, I must go. 
There is a well-wrought scheme within my brain, 
Jubal, the son of Lamech, has a child, 
A little girl, whose beaming countenance 
Mirrors the beauty of a spotless soul. 
'Tis like a sky, where night is never seen, 
Where twilight shadows never meet the eye, 
Where sombre clouds love not to linger long, 
For happiness looks sunlight from her eyes, 



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Shedding the lustre of unchequered day. 
She has not heard of God, yet has her soul 
Sought some exalted worship ; and in sun, 
And moon, and stars, in tempest and in cloud, 
In rippling stream, and far-resounding sea, 
In pensive evening, and majestic night, 
She sees some greatness which she may adore, 
And deifies the garments of our God. 

The first threatening of the deluge is thus 
described : 

Up from the hollow caverns of the earth 

There comes a rushing sound like the great hum 

Of some far-distant ocean ; yet ere long 

The murmur rolls more loudly, and at last 

The ground begins to shake beneath their feet, 

As if the very heart of the vast world 

Were palpitating with an awful dread. 

They stand aghast, each scans his neighbour's face 

And finds no comfort there. 

Zillah, who had been brought by Japheth 
into the ark, in her anxiety for her father's 
safety climbs to its top, and whilst scanning the 
waters for his form, is thus impressed by the 
terrible desolation around her : 

She heard the thunder roll, 
A peal so loud that all the mountains shook, 
And threaten'd to fall headlong on the plains. 
Then came a frightful crash, the earth was rent, 
And, bursting open wide, disclosed a gulf 
Whence the imprisoned waters from beneath 
Darted, with lofty leap, into the air, 
And the great sea, made mightier by the rains, 
No more restrained itself, but burst its bonds, 
Bounding to meet the subterranean flood, 



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As host advances to encounter host, 
And in a moment, like a fleeting dream, 
Terrestrial objects vanished from the eye, 
Not as the summer gently fades away, 
But rather as is ravished from the view, 
A sunny peak, where sudden clouds alight, 
Extinguishing its glory. The vast plains, 
The modest valleys, the oak-studded woods, 
The stable rocks, and the stupendous hills, 
All dipped beneath the unrelenting waves ; 
The lights went out in the celestial halls, 
All space put on her funeral attire ; 
The chambers of the universe were dark ; 
Their walls were lined with drapery of black, 
In tribute to the earth that was no more. 

If the theme of this poem was inspired by 
Milton's Paradise Lost, the second undoubtedly 
owed its origin to Byron, who was, as we have 
seen, one of those who influenced Matheson dur- 
ing his College career. Its title is " The Blind 
Girl's Retrospect." The scene is laid in Greece, 
and the hero is a corsair. It is not necessary to 
give a sketch of the plot, for the author, in a 
foreword, declares that his aim was purely 
a " philosophical one." "It is not so much 
designed," he says, "to depict any adventures 
peculiar to a blind girl, as to ascertain two things : 
First — With what imaginary analysis one born 
blind might associate the descriptions of visual 
phenomena ; and Second — How far the imagination 
could extend without the aid of the visual faculty." 
It is interesting to note that this poem was written 
by Matheson in his eighteenth or nineteenth year, 
just at the time when the failure of his eyesight had 



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65 



become almost complete. It is pathetic to find 
him taking up such a theme and spending his full 
strength on it. It is a strong testimony, at the 
same time, to his cheery optimism and unconquer- 
able faith. He did not take his misfortune lying 
down. He attempted, on the contrary, to turn it 
to a glorious use. 

It is remarkable how, many years afterwards, 
when, as minister of St. Bernard's, he gave an 
address to the inmates of the Blind Asylum, his 
theme was the very one which formed the subject 
of this early poem. Reverting, afterwards, to the 
subject, he remarked to a friend : 

I hold that the training of the blind has been greatly 
neglected in one respect, that of the higher imagination. 
They have been taught any amount of cyphering and 
manual work, but it seems to me that they have not been 
taught what they most need, namely, how to conceive 
the thing which has been denied to them. The blind 
cannot conceive sight, as sight, but I hold that they may 
be made to conceive it by analogy. Experiments have 
convinced me that hearing is as much a revealer of form 
as sight. We know that originally sight has no more to 
do with form than hearing has. Touch, alone, gives the 
idea of extension of form. The only thing which is 
originally given by sight is colour, not even distance. I 
hold that sound is simply a colour of the ear, and that it 
is possible to conceive figure by the ear. For instance, by 
ringing a bell at three points, you convey to the ear a 
distinct impression of a triangle ; and, after all, there are 
only a very few forms in the universe. Begin by 
representing lines, and you may go on representing 
the very sky to the blind. When I went to the Blind 
Asylum, and described the sun rising, they said it was a 
revelation, and you would have rejoiced to hear their 

5 



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exclamations. Never before, they said, had anyone 
broken the dark cloud. 

" The Blind Girl's Retrospect " is an illustration 
of Matheson's views on this subject. He attempts 
to show how, by her other faculties, particularly 
those of hearing and of touch, and also by her 
imagination, she is able to conceive to herself the 
visible world. As a matter of fact, Matheson 
himself carried out his principles. He was never 
without a picture in his mind of his surroundings, 
and he created an image of the natural scenery in 
which he moved. The images in his mind were 
quite as distinct and glowing, and in many respects 
more vivid and accurate, than those which affected 
the retina of ordinary observers. He thus con- 
stantly lived in a world of reality. It was framed and 
filled by his imagination, aided by his other senses, 
which had been carefully trained by a lengthened 
experience. He always formed to himself a por- 
trait of the individual with whom he might be 
conversing, and he sometimes amused a friend by 
describing him to his face. An instance of this 
kind is recorded by the Rev. James Cunningham, 
an old fellow-student of Matheson's, and now 
minister of the Presbyterian Church, Wandsworth. 
Cunningham had paid Matheson a visit, in the 
summer of 1898, at Craigmore, Rothesay, and 
among other interesting topics that he refers to, 
Mr. Cunningham says: ' ' After lunch, and, full 
time to take what Mr. Fawcett used to call ' a good 
look of his man,' when Matheson began to describe 



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my appearance, as he conceived it, in a series of 
queries, his sister and I delightedly responding, 
'Yes, yes; Right, right,' it was my turn to clap 
hands, but nearer crying than laughing." To such 
a man the loss of sight was not the calamity 
which it would have been to others less endowed 
with intellect, imagination, and Christian faith. 
More than most, he was the habitant of two worlds, 
both intensely real and living. 

The poem opens with a soliloquy by the Blind 
Girl as she sits by the seashore : — 

Art thou not weary, music-breathing sea ? 
Is thy great voice not yet worn hoarse with time ? 
Storms rend the breast of man and scatter strife, 
Thy tempest is but high-toned harmony. 

After a pause she breaks forth in the following 
invocation to Light : — 

O Light ! thou unknown object of my search, 

Too much a spirit to impress the touch, 

Thou art the oldest of created things, 

And heaven delights to be compared with thee, 

For God has called Himself " Light of the World." 

In the following passage we find an illustration 
of his theory, that the objects of vision can be 
conceived by the other senses with the aid of the 
imagination : — 

One day the winds ran loose along the deep, 
And high in space the storm-king blustered by ; 
In rocky cradle, moaned the restless sea, 
And nature, sorrowful, began to weep, 
Pouring down tears of rain upon the trees. 



68 RECESS STUDIES 



As nature wept, the rude and burly blast, 
With wanton mirth, scattered her tears away, 
The sea birds' cry shivered the air in twain, 
Dragging behind it echoes from the hills. 

The lowliest chorister that cleaves the air 

Can revel in an enviable joy, 

Yet these I envy not, for I can feel 

How beautiful is light by its effects. 

For I can judge the parent by her child, 

And light is parent of all happiness, 

And tunes the lark to song when sleep dissolves. 

Yet there are times when man complains of light, 

And speaks as one deserted by his guide ; 

I never knew them, never felt their power. 

Whence is it so with me the blind Greek girl ? 

Perhaps as one on whose familiar ear 

The ticking of the clock has fallen long, 

Grows passive, and forgets the tuneless sound, 

So has the habit of this darkness grown, 

That I in vain would find where it abides, 

And cannot feel the horror it involves. 

The reflections which these poems — with Mathe- 
son's own thoughts on the power of imagination 
working upon the deposits of memory and on the 
other senses, particularly that of hearing — suggest, 
is finely expressed in a reference to the subject by 
Dr. David Sime, who for ten years (i 872-1 882) 
practised in Innellan, and who during the whole 
of that period was on the most intimate terms with 
Dr. Matheson. He remarks : 

His memory of the light of nature, and of sunsets, 
and of the green earth and its flowers, and of the stars in 
the infinite depths of sky ; the memory of the faces of 
man and woman, of mother and father, of sisters and 
brothers, remained with him, and grew purer, more choice 



RECESS STUDIES 69 

and sweeter every year. The same kind of sifting, 
burnishing process of the sweets of recollection is to be 
seen in Milton's superb description of sunrise in Paradise. 
The poet was blind, and had been so for years in the 
heart of a great city's crowded life, when he wrought in 
undying poetry this vision. But it was the memory of a 
thousand sunrises, and lingering so long, and becoming 
more and more perfect in such a mind, it became all the 
more fitted for a sunrise in Paradise itself. Dr. Matheson's 
memories of the loveliness of sea, cloud, and sky, and of 
the earth in its seasons which were now shut out from 
him for his life on earth, became idealised, and at times 
his talk of the visible universe was like that of a spirit, 
and always with emotion. It is the memory of pleasures 
and highest joys that alone lingers in the mind. Pain 
and suffering of even intensest degree, when once over, as 
in toothache, neuralgia, colic, are, thank Heaven, soon 
forgotten. So, likewise, are disappointment, misunder- 
standing, persecution, failure. Even the misery, the corrupt 
injustices and sufferings, the depravity of the Middle Ages, 
are well-nigh obliterated in their sanctity, worship, and 
work. Complete as it was, Dr. Matheson's blindness was 
not revealed so much in his brown laughing eyes, which 
were expressive, and had a light of their own which was 
from within and not of the world, as perhaps in the use 
of his delicate hands. When he laughed heartily, as he 
often did, and he had an unrestrained flowing laugh, full 
of thrilling delight — he would sometimes flutter his hands 
like wings, as if still he were a wondering wee boy. And 
to the end he had much of the sweet spontaneity of a 
child. 



CHAPTER IV 
PROBATION 

Matheson was licensed by his own Presbytery, 
that of Glasgow, on 13th June 1866. The register 
is signed twice in his own handwriting. The 
penmanship is round, clear, and bold ; in later 
years, from lack of practice, there was a marked 
falling off in his caligraphy, but up to the very end 
he was in the habit of freely appending his signature, 
and sometimes, as a mark of very special favour, 
he would pen a whole letter with his own hand. 
Very few young men ever appeared before a 
Presbytery to receive their commission to preach 
the everlasting gospel more fully equipped for the 
task than George Matheson, He had spent nine 
years at the University of Glasgow, five in Arts 
and four in Divinity. He had entered with zest 
into the work of the different classes, gaining the 
highest honours in many of them. The summer 
vacation was industriously employed in studying 
the great masterpieces of English Literature, in 
maturing his mind and perfecting his style, and 
generally, in broadening his culture. He did not 

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PROBATION 



71 



enter the ministry as a bread-and-butter pro- 
fession ; it was his early choice. From his youth 
upwards he had a passion for preaching. The 
sphere which the Church could afford him for 
exercising to the fullest his rare gifts of thought 
and speech he highly valued, and one of the great 
regrets of his closing years was the fact that his 
failing health compelled him to relinquish his 
charge, and to decline the many pressing invita- 
tions which he received to address, in different parts 
of the country, the large crowds that were eager to 
hear him. 

It was not, however, till the following year 
that he entered upon his professional duties. The 
summer and autumn months that intervened were 
employed in preparing himself for his new vocation, 
in writing sermons, and in travel. There are still 
in existence a number of his early productions, 
some of them College exercises, and others written 
for future use. They are inscribed on loose sheets 
of paper, and do not belong to the professional 
period of his life proper. From the time that he 
preached his first sermon as an assistant, to the 
day that he delivered his farewell as minister of 
St. Bernard's parish, he was careful to have his 
sermons written in large and well-bound notebooks. 
Each notebook is numbered, and so is each sermon. 
At the end of every notebook there is an index 
giving the date on which the sermon was written 
and the churches in which it was preached. And 
at the close of each sermon that was written out 



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in full there is a brief summary, a skeleton of its 
contents, which, should he have occasion to preach 
it again, he could easily carry in his mind to the 
pulpit. One is greatly struck by the care displayed, 
not only in the preparation, but in the penning of 
these sermons. There is hardly an erasure, and 
they could be printed from beginning to end 
without a correction. This regard for exactness 
characterised all his work, and his different 
secretaries testify to his having suffered more 
agony in the correction of his proofs than in the 
composition of his works. I remember meeting 
him on one occasion at a private dinner-party ; it 
was at Christmas-time, and he had just posted the 
final revision of a volume that was not to appear 
till the following autumn. He had failed, or 
thought he had failed, to make a correction ; it was 
a single word, and an outsider could not understand 
how even with the desired correction the sense or 
style could be improved. He, however, was 
differently affected, and now and again the thought 
of this omission disturbed his enjoyment of the 
evening. 

Matheson was never much of a traveller ; he 
detested railway journeys. This can be easily 
accounted for. Had he been able to travel alone 
with his secretary, all might have been well, for 
he could then have enjoyed being read to, which 
was one of his greatest pleasures ; but in the 
company of fellow-passengers this was impossible. 
Latterly, also, he had a repugnance to being all 



PROBATION 



73 



night from home, and he preferred to make preach- 
ing engagements which would enable him to return 
the same evening. Before harnessing himself, 
however, to what was to be his life's work he made 
a trip to London and another to Paris. He was 
accompanied on the latter occasion by his brother 
John, and his sister declares that they were amazed 
at the interesting account which George gave of his 
trip. " Few," she remarks, " who had good eyesight 
could describe things and places as he did." Have 
we not in this a proof of his own contention that the 
faculties of hearing and of touch, aided, as in his 
case, by memory and by a powerful and well- trained 
imagination, are able to represent to the mind the 
world of vision. This was the only foreign tour in 
which he indulged, but blind as he was he probably 
learned far more from it than do the modern globe- 
trotters, who career through Europe at the rate of 
a country a day, from their incessant travelling and 
constant sight-seeing. 

There can be no doubt that Matheson on 
starting his ministerial life was determined to be a 
great preacher. It was his ambition to do with all 
his might any work to which he might put his hand. 
Whether he succeeded or not he always aimed at 
being first, not that he might outstrip rivals, for no 
man that attained to his supreme position ever 
provoked so few jealousies. It was a healthy 
boyish instinct that possessed him, and all who 
knew him intimately were at once disarmed by 
this youthful element in his nature ; and, when he 



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PROBATION 



hit the mark in a sermon or a book, they shared 
his joy just as much as if he had been a young 
fellow who had made the highest score in a cricket 
match or won the game at football. It will, then, 
go without saying that he formed to himself an 
ideal of preaching, and took advantage of hearing 
the most renowned exponents of the Art within 
his reach. He was singularly fortunate in this 
respect, for Glasgow at that time possessed several 
preachers who left their mark on their generation. 
It will be enough to mention five : Caird, Norman 
Macleod, Charteris, Pulsford, and Macduff. It is 
no disparagement to present-day pulpit oratory to 
say that no city in Scotland can now boast of such 
a combination. They were men who profoundly 
impressed, by their thought, eloquence, and life, 
not only the city which boasted of their ministry, 
but the country as a whole. Indeed, the fame of 
some of them travelled far beyond the limits of 
their native land, and their names are still cherished 
by many as household words. There can be no 
doubt that Matheson was much impressed by them 
all, and in a sense he was the representative of all 
their special qualities. The speculative genius 
of Caird, the humanitarianism of Macleod, the 
mysticism of Pulsford, the fervour of Charteris, and 
the poetry of Macduff, may all be said to be 
reproduced in Matheson, but in such a way as not 
to dominate but to make them tributary to his 
native genius, which incorporated and transformed 
them into its own likeness. Nor was he slow in 



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75 



acknowledging his indebtedness to two of them at 
least. He was in the habit of declaring that he 
owed his spiritual awakening to William Pulsford, 
the thoughtful and saintly minister of Trinity 
Church, Glasgow. "The man of all others," he 
once declared, "that shaped my personality, was 
Pulsford. I met him only once, but I never heard 
a man who so inspired me ; he set me on fire, and, 
under God, he was my spiritual creator." Dr. 
Pulsford was told this on his deathbed, and it was 
a great joy to him. 

Trinity Church is situated in the Sandyford 
district of Glasgow. It was within a stone-throw 
of Matheson's residence as a student in St. Vincent 
Crescent. It was also within a few minutes' walk 
of Woodside Terrace, whither the family had re- 
moved before George's University course was com- 
pleted. Matheson would, accordingly, be a frequent 
worshipper in Trinity Church, drawn thither, like 
many other students, by the winning personality 
and suggestive preaching of William Pulsford. 
The minister of Trinity Church was not a popular 
preacher in the ordinary acceptation of the term. 
He did not strive nor cry ; he made no attempt to 
attract crowds by any of those methods with which 
we in these times are only too familiar. He was 
content to be himself, and to give of his best in his 
own quiet but effective manner. I have heard him 
in Trinity on a Sunday evening. There was no 
crowd, indeed it might be called a small audience, 
but one felt the inspiration of the man. His very 



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PROBATION 



appearance was a benediction. As a pastor he was 
a true son of consolation ; he was surrounded by 
a spiritual atmosphere which gave comfort and im- 
parted peace to the afflicted. One of his greatest 
friends and admirers was Principal Caird, who fre- 
quently invited him to preach in the University 
Chapel. It is now twenty years since he died, but 
the remaining members of his flock regard his 
memory with the profoundest reverence. 

The other preacher to whom Matheson has 
publicly owned his indebtedness was Dr. Macduff 
of Sandyford Church. He was what may be called 
a sweet preacher, an exponent of the devout life, 
a gentle radiance that brightened the path of 
Christians on their pilgrimage from earth to 
heaven. He was the author of books that had a 
phenomenal circulation ; some of them reaching 
the unprecedented figure of three millions. Such 
volumes as Memories of Bethany, Grapes of 
Eshcol, Memories of Olivet, Morning and Night 
Watches, Palms of Elim, and many others, found 
readers in every part of the world, and no name 
was so universally known and respected by the 
Christian public of his day as that of Dr. Macduff. 
He was the minister of Matheson's boyhood and 
early manhood. He was the first incumbent of 
Sandyford Church, and his congregation was one 
of the largest and wealthiest in the city. Between 
the two there was formed an early friendship, which 
continued unbroken until the end ; and it said much 
for Matheson that six months after he was licensed 



I 



PROBATION 



77 



as a probationer of the Church he was invited by 
Dr. Macduff to become his assistant. The young 
licentiate naturally shrank from the position to 
which he was thus invited. He felt a reluctance 
to assume ministerial duties in the church in which 
he was brought up, and among a people who knew 
him so intimately, and who represented the culture 
and the influence of the city. He also felt his 
unpreparedness for the task, and pled with Dr. 
Macduff to excuse him on the ground that he 
had hardly any sermons. "How many have 
you ? " asked Macduff. " Only thirteen," said 
young Matheson. "Ah, then, you are rich," was 
the rejoinder, and the appointment was made on 
8th January 1867. I have been favoured with the 
following interesting sketch of this period of 
Matheson's life by Dr. Macduffs daughter, who 
has inherited much of her father's literary talent : 

George Matheson did not come amongst us for the 
first time when he began his ministerial duties. His 
parents had (I believe from the date of its opening) been 
members of Sandyford Church, and had for years en- 
riched the heart and life of its minister by their valued 
friendship. From early boyhood their eldest son grew 
up in our sanctuary as in a spiritual home, and its holy 
and beautiful services were familiar to him long before he 
occupied its pulpit. 

Thus, when the time of his appointment arrived, he be- 
came all at once the teacher of those who had watched 
his development from childhood. Some, who listened 
with a thrill of pride and joy to his first public utterances, 
had known him from earliest years, and in other homes 
besides our own he was still affectionately and familiarly 
spoken of simply as " George," as if there were but one 



78 



PROBATION 



George in the world to us. If this very fact might in 
some ways be supposed to add to the difficulties of the 
young pastor's task, the warmth of the friendly atmosphere 
by which he was surrounded must at the same time have 
proved an inspiration and a joy. 

At the period in which he became my father's helper, 
Dr. Matheson was still very youthful in appearance, re- 
taining an almost boyish contour of countenance, and 
was, I can well remember, in spite of difficulties connected 
with his sight, specially characterised by a peculiar 
buoyancy of step and movement as he went about his 
pastoral duties, his arm linked in that of his secretary. 

In spite of the marvellous attainments of his school 
and University career, there was nothing about him which 
suggested the traditional student, " sicklied o'er with the 
pale cast of thought" He had no affinity with the 
recluse, but was in its truest sense a man of the world, 
finding his inspiration in life's human contacts and 
sympathies, seeking not so much to renounce as to 
reclaim the world, regarding our earth less as a wilderness 
or a battlefield than a garden in which man might still 
trace God's footsteps, and feel His touch. His was a 
genial and a joyous nature, and the brilliant intellect was 
ever warmed and softened by the glow of the kindly 
heart. It was possibly because he was so intensely 
" human," giving sympathetic response to the joys, and 
sorrows of existence, that he was able so soon to take the 
place of pastor as well as preacher to my father's flock, 
for, as will still be remembered by some, almost as soon 
as his dear friend and spiritual son was appointed to the 
assistantship, Dr. Macduff left on a tour to Palestine 
and the East, leaving him as his representative. It must 
have been a hard test to one so new to the ministerial 
office not only to keep the threads of church life and 
organisation from entanglement, and to exercise the 
wisdom and tact often learned only in the school of 
experience, but Sunday by Sunday to hold that great 
congregation together by the charm of his intellect and 
eloquence. But he passed through it with victorious 
success. Certainly in his case the proverb failed of its 



PROBATION 



79 



truth, " A prophet is not without honour save in his own 
country." 

I was, it may be, too young at the time to form any 
reliable estimate of his pulpit gifts, but my impression 
is that while the poetry of his nature lent its aid, while 
his command of language enriched and adorned, while 
his eloquence stirred, and his power of memory astounded, 
it was his individuality and originality of thought which 
gripped his hearers. Of course, from the very first, not 
only the sermon, but all the chapters, psalms, and hymns 
were committed to memory, and I can remember no 
instance of even a hesitancy in this respect. I do not 
know what may have been the habitude of his later days, 
but at that time Dr. Matheson was always seated in the 
pulpit before the congregation assembled. It appears to 
me that his manner was a quiet one. As he rose to give 
out the first hymn, or at the beginning of a fresh para- 
graph or division, the head would be well thrown back 
with a motion peculiar to him, but he used very little 
action, his words being usually emphasised only by a 
uniform and slightly persistent forward movement of one 
delicate hand. In my childish and girlish days his great 
deprivation always, in ordinary life, pathetically appealed 
to me, but I have no consciousness of this being the case 
when he occupied the pulpit. I only mention the fact, 
because it goes to prove how completely his mental and 
spiritual qualities overcame and outshone physical dis- 
abilities. 

At the time it all appeared to me perfectly natural, 
but, looking back, it seems almost phenomenal that so 
young a man should at once have achieved the position 
he took as a preacher and a power ; not less so that my 
father, ever scrupulously anxious for the well-being of 
his people, should without hesitancy or anxiety have 
committed them to his care. Doubtless much that 
others learn gradually in the discipline of life, he had 
already mastered in that of early trial, his own affliction 
putting him at once in touch with the sorrows of others, 
his deprivation with their losses, his victorious struggles 
with their hopes. 



80 



PROBATION 



I feel that no reference, however slight, to any portion 
of Dr. Matheson's youthful life would be complete, did 
it not suggest that, while his own genius secured his 
rank as preacher, and his early trial conduced to his 
success as pastor, there was one external influence and 
aid without which he would not have been what he was. 
It was, in those Glasgow times of long ago, an open 
secret that one stood by his side in the school and 
college days which led up to the pulpit and the pastorate, 
who was indeed " eyes to the blind," and often, as in the 
old story of David and Jonathan, " strengthened his hand 
in God." To that gentle and gifted lady all those who 
have been inspired by Dr. Matheson's teaching owe a 
deep and lasting debt. From early morning till night's 
last shadow fell, she was the good angel of his life. 

The most happy and sympathetic relationship between 
my father and his young and valued coadjutor was dis- 
solved by Dr. Matheson's translation to the church and 
parish of Innellan. But though the bond of close per- 
sonal intercourse and mutual work was all too soon 
broken, the golden links of friendship were only riveted 
more closely by the lapse of years, and severed alone by 
death. 

Now both have passed away to that land where 
kindred souls are reunited in kindred service. Of the 
afterglow of that beautiful friendship which, because I 
was my father's daughter, Dr. Matheson from the warmth 
of his generous heart bestowed on me since he left us who 
was, as he wrote, " also to him a father," it is not for me to 
speak here. I can only in thought twine with his memory 
a wreath of amaranth and forget-me-not, and write, 
" M ine own friend and my father s fi'iend." 

That Miss Macduff in her closing paragraphs 
had good grounds for emphasising the close 
relationship that existed between her father and 
Dr. Matheson, until death divided them, will be 
seen from the two following letters, written when 
Dr. Macduff was on his deathbed. On hearing 



PROBATION 



81 



of his friend's serious illness, Dr. Matheson wrote 
to Miss Macduff as follows : 

19 St. Bernard's Crescent, Edinburgh, 
March 14, 1895. 

I cannot tell you what a shock I received this morning 
on hearing of the illness of one who has been to me 
associated with life itself. Your dear father is the one 
who gave me my first sense of literary beauty, my first 
impression of oratory, my first idea of sanctity, my first 
real conviction of the beauty of Christianity. The tones 
of his voice are even now unconsciously reproduced in my 
own. I have retained more of his pulpit influence than 
that of any other teacher. I am myself slowly recovering 
from a sharp attack of influenza, and I am still so weak 
that writing is extremely difficult, but I would not feel 
happy if I did not speak out the grief that is in me. 

To this Dr. Macduff dictated the following 
reply : — 

Ravenswood, Chislehurst, Kent, 
March 18, 1895. 

God bless you ! I am very ill, and can still only speak 
in a whisper, but I cannot resist telling you how at this 
season of great infirmity you have strengthened, en- 
couraged, stimulated, by assuring me that the echoes still 
linger of these dear old Sandyford days. I was proud of 
you as one of my flock. My days are numbered, but you 
have a great future before you. May you live to inherit 
its crowns and encouragements. 

It is important to mark his theological stand- 
point during this early period, and to trace the 
stages in his religious growth. To enable us to do 
this I cannot do better than give a synopsis of, and 
an extract from, his first sermon. The text is the 
37th Psalm, 6th verse : " And He shall bring forth 
6 



82 



PROBATION 



thy righteousness as the light," and the subject is 
" The Manifestation of Practical Christianity." At 
the close of the sermon there is this brief summary 
of its contents : 

Has not God been kinder to matter than to mind ? Why 
does He not say to the latter as to the former, " Let there 
be light " ? Because He wanted from man precisely what 
the previous creation could not give — a life ruled not by 
law, but by the voluntary choice of love. Yet while they 
are different in their origin, they are one in their manifesta- 
tion. Light is at once the most heavenly and the most 
secular object; above other things, yet gaining its beauty 
from reflecting them. Compare it with the life of Christ 
and with spiritual life in general. Worldly diffusiveness 
does not degrade God's Spirit. The spirit of poetry in the 
heart manifests itself not merely in grand works, but un- 
consciously in the most commonplace acts. 

Here is a passage in the sermon, in which he 
compares natural light to the light of Christ in the 
soul : 

Perhaps the most prominent feature of resemblance is the 
idea of a permeating power, of a capacity to blend with 
all scenes and with all circumstances. For I ask you to 
consider for a moment how close is the point of analogy 
between the glory of the Father above and the glory of 
the Son within. Of all physical existences light is at 
once the most heavenly and the most secular. It comes, 
indeed, from a height which imagination cannot measure. 
No astronomic power has ever soared so high as to trace 
the source of that wonderful essence. Away beyond the 
farthest star, beyond the utmost flight of fancy, lies its 
hidden, its mysterious seat. Its going forth is from the 
remotest heaven, and its circuit is unto the end of it. And 
yet how it descends to the commonplace, how accessible 
it is; how practical, universal, all embracing is its 
influence. It goes forth into the rough, rude, everyday 



PROBATION 



83 



world ; it visits the meanest haunts of men ; it gilds the 
mart of commerce and the scene of toil, the exchange, the 
counting-house, and the workshop. It touches the most 
prosaic objects and converts them into gold. It blends 
with the smoke and dust of the great city, dispelling its 
dense mists and chasing away its gloomy vapours, yet 
gathering not a stain upon its spotless beams. And there 
is no parallel to its boundless catholicity ; unconscious of 
all partiality it looks up as proudly from the lowly vale as 
down from the haughty hill ; it rests as brightly on the 
desert wildflower as on the palace dome. 

Now compare this description for a moment with the 
outward course of that mysterious Being who was em- 
phatically the external embodiment of evangelical religion ; 
that true Light which more than eighteen centuries ago 
flashed through this little world. He came from far 
heights of majesty, yet His rise was not a sudden glare of 
noonday, but the morning beam of childhood ; soft, gentle, 
unpretentious. No rustling in the folds of night announced 
the coming of the dayspring from on high. Unseen, 
unknown, He rose into youth amidst the hills of Galilee, 
and even when He entered on His grand career, He spread 
like the sun through earth's most common ways. For 
mark how broad a path was His ; how to every heart He 
brought warmth and peace and comfort. How every affec- 
tion of our nature went out to meet Him. Joy with its 
marriage bells ; sorrow with its sickness, its bereavements, its 
poverty ; intellect with its scribes and pharisees ; love with 
its alabaster box of ointment ; friendship with its house at 
Bethany ; penitence with its poor desolate Magdalene, — 
He had an affection and a word for all. Every pulse of 
His spirit reverberated to universal humanity ; to laughing 
childhood and thoughtful manhood ; to festive happiness 
and to overwhelming sorrow; to the dear delights of 
kindred and family and home ; to the social intercourse of 
a Lazarus and the benign companionship of a John. No 
gloomy, ascetic, narrow, circumscribed religion, but a piety 
whose gladness was another's joy, whose grief another's 
pain, and whose mightiest impulse that universal charity 
beneath whose heaven all nature is made bright. 



84 



PROBATION 



One can see at a glance in this brief extract 
the exuberant style of youth. Subsequent years 
brought restraint, but the interest, for us, lies in the 
theological standpoint. It is that of half a century 
ago. The young preacher struck the note with 
which he had been familiar in Sandyford pulpit 
and elsewhere from his boyhood. The tone of the 
discourse is thoroughly evangelical. Matheson had 
not as yet begun to reflect seriously upon the 
contents of the Gospels, or to interpret their meaning 
for himself. The speculative theories with which 
Caird and his own reading had made him familiar 
were not to bear fruit until a later day. The 
other sermons which he wrote during his probationer 
days are cast in much the same mould as this one. 
There is undoubtedly an originality and freshness 
about them which must have distinguished them 
from the productions of his youthful contemporaries. 
They also possess that beauty of style which was 
to characterise all his subsequent writing. There 
is no mistaking his meaning, his thoughts are 
distinctly conceived and clearly expressed, and a 
logical sequence links together each step in the 
argument, which is brightened up by apt and telling 
illustrations. We have in these early sermons the 
talent necessary for the making of a great preacher ; 
all that is wanting is the spirit. We feel that once 
the author begins to think for himself on the great 
problems of religion, there would be revealed a 
pulpit orator of the first order. Tradition after 
having played its part must yield to reflection. 



PROBATION 



85 



That also came ; and when it did, the shell was 
burst, and Matheson soared forth fully fledged, and 
in his daring flights carried his hearers to heights 
before undreamed of. 

It is important to observe that from the very 
first day of his ministerial life he was determined 
to shrink from no duty which his profession imposed 
upon him. He resolved to be the pastor as well 
as the preacher. During Dr. Macduffs absence 
in Palestine, the whole care of the congregation 
devolved upon him. In a flock which numbered 
a thousand members, there must have been much 
sickness and sorrow. He. could not have been 
an admirer of Pulsford or of Macduff without 
possessing the pastoral touch. His sympathy at 
all times was quick and overflowing, and he never 
failed to render those services which are due to 
the house of affliction. Nor did he neglect his 
parochial duties. Within a stone-throw of Sandy- 
ford Church there is a large working-class population. 
At that time it was still in the Barony Parish. A 
few years afterwards it was disjoined and erected 
into the parish of Kelvinhaugh. During a part 
of Dr. Macduff s ministry he and his Kirk Session 
relieved Dr. Norman Macleod, of the Barony, of 
the charge of this district, and it was customary 
for the Sandyford assistant to conduct a prayer- 
meeting in one or other of the houses in Kelvin- 
haugh. This duty Matheson also discharged ; and 
I remember him, a few years before his death, 
asking if a family, which he named, still resided 



86 



PROBATION 



in the only main-door in Teviot Street. On my 
replying that they did, he said that he was in the 
habit, when a probationer, of conducting a prayer- 
meeting in their house. His position as an assistant 
in Sandyford Church was, however, to be of short 
duration. Events soon happened which transferred 
his services to a new sphere, and promoted him to 
a charge of his own. 



CHAPTER V 
MATHESON OF INNELLAN 

The minister of Sandyford had but newly returned 
from his tour in Palestine and the East, when his 
promising young assistant was elected minister of 
Innellan. The new appointment might not on 
the first blush be regarded as a great step in 
advance, for Innellan, at the time of Matheson's 
election, was only a Chapel of Ease in the parish 
of Dunoon. Some years had to elapse before it 
was erected into a parish, giving to its incumbent 
the status of a parish minister of the Church of 
Scotland. It, however, had this advantage, that 
the members of the congregation had the right 
of election, and in this respect they occupied a 
position of greater power and privilege than the 
members of the Parish Church of Dunoon, of which 
they formed, in a way, a dependent part. The Act 
of Disraeli's Government which abolished patronage 
in the Church of Scotland had not yet been passed, 
and the original parishes, numbering between nine 
hundred and a thousand, had to accept, subject 
to certain ecclesiastical conditions, the nominee of 

87 



88 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



some patron. It is futile to discuss whether this 
was a better system than the one which now 
generally prevails. It had its advantages and its 
disadvantages, like everything that is human, but 
it says much for Matheson that, blind as he was, 
the first important step in his professional career 
did not depend on the patronage of any influential 
man, but on his own ability and efforts. He was 
elected to Innellan on his merits. In spite of his 
physical disadvantage, he was chosen the minister 
of the congregation by a popular vote. 

It was most important, in his case, that he 
should be appointed to a charge at the earliest 
opportunity. There was naturally a strong pre- 
judice in the minds of people against having placed 
over them, as their minister, one whose eyesight 
was so seriously impaired as to render him 
practically blind ; and the congregation of Innellan 
were not superior to a feeling which was so 
general. There was very strong opposition to his 
appointment, and the contest was so keen that 
Matheson's supporters only managed to secure his 
election by a very narrow majority. The success- 
ful candidate was admitted by everyone to be 
by far and away the ablest and most eloquent 
preacher of all the competitors. But he laboured 
under one great disadvantage, which the older 
members of the congregation had not the courage 
to ignore. Matheson was the chosen of the 
younger section of the church, who thought less 
of what was expected of a minister, out of the 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 89 



pulpit, than in it. His approved talents and 
preaching gifts were to them of far more conse- 
quence than the discharge, according to use and 
wont, of the petty details of ministerial duty. As 
after events proved, Matheson fulfilled these duties 
with a promptitude, a grace, and a success that 
ministers with the most perfect eyesight would 
have difficulty in excelling. That, however, had 
still to be shown, and while giving our cordial 
support to his youthful admirers, we cannot alto- 
gether blame those who experienced some hesitation 
in welcoming him as their minister. 

There was one element in the election which 
must have had some weight in producing the final 
result. Matheson was no stranger to many of 
the people. His family had been in the habit of 
making Innellan their summer quarters for some 
years. Their genial and kindly relation to the 
villagers had made them popular, and this helped 
to break down to a large extent the prejudice 
that prevailed. It is not at all unlikely that, had 
Matheson appeared in the pulpit of Innellan for the 
first time as an absolute stranger, his transcendent 
talent and eloquence might have been of no avail. 
Those who are accustomed to the ways of Scotch 
congregations at election times know how little 
turns the scale. Anything in the personal appear- 
ance of the candidate, in his tone of voice, in his 
gesture, even in his dress, may make or mar him. 
He may come before them with the most powerful 
credentials, he may preach like another Chrysostom ; 



90 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



but if a slight peculiarity tickles the fancy, or offends 
the taste, of his rustic hearers, his fate, for weal or 
woe, is sealed. No one knew this better than 
Matheson himself, and he was in the habit of 
telling some stories in illustration. On one occasion 
he was introducing a friend to his new congrega- 
tion. The church was crowded, even the passages 
and pulpit stairs were lined with people. Matheson, 
on leaving the pulpit at the close of the service, 
had some difficulty in piloting his way to the 
vestry. An aged lady, and a warm admirer, seized 
him by the hand, and whispered so loudly in his 
ear as to be heard by many others : " I voted for 
Mr. P." (naming the new minister) " not because 
I thought he was the best preacher, but I kenned 
he was a puir widower wi' four mitherless bairns." 
He was also in the habit of telling the following 
story. The minister of an Ayrshire parish secured 
his appointment for the following reasons (nar- 
rated by a representative farmer, who, after the 
election, was discussing the matter with a friend) : — 
" In giving out the psalms and hymns, he repeated 
the number and the verse twice ; we liked that. 
In the middle of his sermon an old woman was 
hoasting badly, and he stopped until she was 
done ; and we liked that. Then, again, when the 
congregation skailed and he passed us on the road 
frae the kirk, he did not haud his head in the air, 
like some of the other young upstarts, but he 
bowed, lifted his hat, and bade us guid-day ; and 
we liked that : and for these three reasons we 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 91 



voted for him." Such are the whimsicalities of 
popular election ; and the choice of a candidate, who 
under the present system has to engage in a 
preaching match over his less fortunate rivals, is 
no guarantee whatever that he is the abler minister 
or the better man. Should any certificate of merit 
have been necessary in Matheson's case, his ability 
to subdue, by his preaching, the strong and not 
unreasonable prejudice that prevailed against him 
may surely be regarded as a sufficient one. 

The young minister left Sandyford with the 
heartiest good wishes on the part of minister, office- 
bearers, and people, and with the following extract 
of minute from the Kirk Session records : — 

At a meeting of Sandyford Church Session held 
in the vestry on Monday, November 4, 1867 — 

Inter alia, — A letter was read by the Moderator from 
the Rev. Mr. Matheson, intimating his appointment to the 
Church of Innellan, and resigning his situation of assistant 
and missionary in connection with Sandyford Church. 

The Kirk Session, while accepting the same, beg to 
enter on their minutes the expression of their high satis- 
faction with Mr. Matheson's labours, and especially desire 
to record their warm appreciation of his pulpit services dur- 
ing the Moderator's absence in Palestine and the East. 

Extracted by 

William Brown, 
Session Clerk. 

Innellan Church was built fifteen years before 
Matheson's appointment to the charge. It was 
opened in the autumn of 1853 by the Rev. Dr. 
M'Culloch of the West Parish, Greenock, one of 
the most eloquent preachers in the Church of 



92 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



Scotland. It was a modest building, pretty much 
in the form of a chancel, but, so far as it went, 
correct in design and form. It was at the time, 
however, quite large enough to hold the congrega- 
tion, for Innellan was then in its youth. A 
generation earlier it was in its infancy, and a 
generation earlier still it was as a residential district 
non-existent. Anyone sailing up the Firth of 
Clyde at the beginning of last century, and looking 
towards Innellan, would have his outlook arrested 
by a line of bleak hills, fringed on the foreshore 
by a few green fields and clumps of wild wood, 
with here and there a primitive farmhouse or a 
shepherds shieling. It might strike the wayfarer 
as a place possessing great possibilities, but its day 
had not come. It had not long to wait, for with 
the prosperity of Glasgow came its opportunity. 
That fapidly growing city made every year fresh 
and increasing demands upon the shores of the 
Firth of Clyde, for accommodation for its inhabitants, 
during the months of summer. The smoke, and 
dust, and din, amid which the citizens had to work 
and live during the greater part of the year, drove 
them, when the spring-time came, to seek purer 
air and recreation at one or other of the watering- 
places within reach of the city. No town in the 
United Kingdom is so fortunate in this respect as 
Glasgow. Thirty miles from the Broomielaw are 
to be found as sweet retreats for the jaded man 
of business as can be found, not only in any part 
of Scotland, but in any other country in the world. 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 93 



The shores of the Firth of Clyde seemed to 
have been devised by a special Providence for the 
recreation of the Glasgow merchant and his family. 
And soon there began to be erected along them 
pretty villas, which, year after year, attracted to 
them those who sought refreshment and respite, for 
a few months, from the labour and strain of their 
business life. By the middle of last century one 
of the most popular of these summer retreats 
was Innellan. Nor will anyone who has resided 
at it feel any surprise at its popularity. From 
the lawn in front of the manse, which, with 
the church beside it, crowns the hill that over- 
looks the village, ones eye rests on a scene 
as bright and winning as is to be found in 
Scotland. Looking to the left, due east almost, 
the hills of Cowal are seen merging into the 
mountains that guard the entrance to Loch Goil 
and Loch Long ; and the shores of Kilcreggan 
seem to close the mouth of the Gareloch and the 
estuary of the Clyde. In front, and straight south, 
one looks on Skelmorlie and the Ayrshire coast. 
The most inspiring view is to the west, where the 
broad waters of the Firth flow into the Irish 
Channel ; the far-stretching sea broken by the Isle 
of Cumbrae, Toward Point, the low hills of Bute ; 
in the distance the high peaks of Arran and, stand- 
ing solitary as a sentinel in mid-channel, Ailsa 
Craig. 

The first minister of Innellan was the Rev. 
Robert Horn, who after a brief stay was elected 



94 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



to the charge of Slamannan. He was succeeded 
by the Rev. Martin Peter Ferguson, who also 
remained but a short time. In a few years he 
was chosen to be minister of the Presbyterian 
Church, Buenos Ayres. The first who made a 
distinct impression on the district was the Rev. 
William Porteous. He came in 1862. One of the 
earliest recollections of my childhood is being sent 
to inquire for the minister, who at the time (1865) 
was on his deathbed. He had been the subject of 
a ruthless persecution. The young minister of 
Innellan won the hearts of the people by the 
transparency of his character and by his generous 
and enthusiastic interest in all that concerned them. 
He had a striking appearance ; his tall spare form, 
pale countenance, and jet black curling hair, would 
have made him a conspicuous figure anywhere. 
He was full of nervous energy, and in the pulpit 
his matter and manner were attractive in the 
extreme. A vacancy happening at the time in 
Bellahouston Church, in the parish of Govan, he 
was chosen its minister by the votes of the con- 
gregation. Bellahouston at that time occupied in 
relation to the Parish Church of Govan much 
the same position as Innellan did in relation to 
Dunoon. The ministers of both parishes had 
certain rights over the subordinate charges, if they 
cared to exercise them. This the parish minister 
of Govan, the Rev. Dr. Leishman, determined to 
do in the present instance. He objected to the 
appointment of Mr. Porteous on the ground, it was 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 95 



generally supposed at the time, of a preference for 
a friend of his own. The charge which he made 
against him, however, was one of plagiarism, and 
he prosecuted the young minister through the 
various courts on to the General Assembly. The 
case, if I mistake not, came up before two General 
Assemblies. The final result was a victory for Mr. 
Porteous, but it was a Pyrrhic victory ; it was 
worse than defeat, for before the day of induction 
to his hard-won charge he was dead. The strain 
and the odium connected with the prosecution so 
affected his sensitive nature and his delicate frame 
that he succumbed and died. Never was a con- 
gregation so affected by the death of a minister as 
was that of Innellan. There are still living those 
who cannot speak of the sad event without deep 
sorrow, in which there is a feeling of bitterness and 
resentment against him who did so cruel a wrong to 
one who was innocent, and who promised to be a 
bright and leading light in the Church of Scotland. 
Mr. Porteous was succeeded in 1865 by the Rev. 
James Donald, now Dr. Donald of Keithhall. 
He was also most successful and much beloved, 
and under him the church prospered so greatly 
that it had to be enlarged. The work was 
carried out in the winter of 1866-67, an d was 
so arranged that, while the extension was tak- 
ing place, the congregation was able to worship 
in the church as usual. Dr. Donald was trans- 
lated to his present charge in the summer of 
1868, when he was succeeded by Matheson, under 



96 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



whose ministry the fame of Innellan reached its 
climax. 

There are three events in connection with the 
settlement of a Scottish minister to his charge 
which are of supreme importance to him and to 
his people. These are the ordination, the ordina- 
tion dinner, and his formal introduction to the 
congregation on the following Sunday by his most 
trusted friend. It is rather sad, in looking over 
the list of the members of the Dunoon Presbytery 
who took part in the ordination service on the 8th 
April 1868, and who were present at the subsequent 
dinner, that all of them, with one exception, the 
Rev. Mr. Bain of Duthil, are dead. I question if 
any of the laity who were present are still living. 
But the occasion was one of deep interest, and a 
united and hearty welcome was offered to the new 
minister. At the dinner in the evening, at which 
the Presbytery with numerous friends were enter- 
tained, the young minister in replying to the toast 
of his health spoke as follows : 

There are moments in the lives of all in which we 
seem to pause between the past and the future, preparing 
to advance yet looking back to bid farewell ; and such a 
moment has now arrived for me. Behind there is a back- 
ground of vivid memory ; before there is a prospect of stern 
responsibility. I will not meet the new without a closing 
glance at the old. The retrospect I speak of is cast in no 
distant scene. It is within hearing of your ever sounding 
shore, within sight of your perpetual hills. It seems but 
yesterday since you and I met together in a very different 
relationship, not as the pastor and the people, but only as 
mutual friends, prepared to render to another the honour 



MATHESON OF INN ELL AN 97 



you have conferred on me. When last I stood in this apart- 
ment it was to celebrate the ordination of my esteemed and 
able predecessor, now minister of Keithhall. To you, whose 
sympathies have followed him to his new abode, the coinci- 
dence must be a pleasing one, and the association with this 
night's proceedings will come like a last ray of the past 
summer which has wandered back into our April showers. 

Perhaps, too, there are some here to-night whose 
memories are travelling further back still, to the ministry 
of one who, though outwardly dead, is yet living and 
breathing in the hearts of all ; whose life, so short in its 
duration, was yet so long in its intensity, so brief and yet 
so crowded, so unfortunate and yet so fraught with lasting 
power ; sealed, too, by a fate so untimely and so sorrow- 
ful, has rendered him for ever devotedly beloved. I do 
not call back these shadows from the past that I may 
contrast them with the present, but rather that I may 
catch the mantle which falls from the vanished years. 
My predecessors have left indelible footprints, and these 
footprints I would like to make my guide. And, Gentle- 
men, never was there an age in which the preacher had 
more need of a guide, whether from books or men. From 
every grade of rank and station, from every sphere of 
profession and calling, from every tinge of character and 
life, alike from the palace homes of luxury and from the 
rudest hamlet on the mountain-side, there is going forth the 
one united voice — the demand for intellectual enlighten- 
ment. Reason, recognising that bread is her birthright, 
refuses any longer to be satisfied with a stone. They tell 
us in these days that the pulpit has declined, say, rather, 
that the laity have advanced. The beach has not receded 
but the waves of the great sea have rolled up and covered 
half its glory. The candle is not more dim, but the 
surrounding sunshine has absorbed its brightness. The 
Church has not lost its pristine power, but the spread of 
universal power has robbed it of its contrast. 

The preacher of our day must be a man not only of 
universal knowledge, but, to some extent, of universal 
nature too. In him must be blended something of the 
lives of all men. There must be the depths of the 

7 



98 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



philosopher's thought, with the simplicity of the child's 
expression ; the inquiring mind of manhood, with the 
pensive faith of declining years ; the speculative strength 
of youth, with a hallowed, chastened, humble sense of 
feebleness. There must be argument for the doubting 
and confirmation for the trustful, encouragement for the 
fearing and approbation for the brave, gentleness for the 
erring and sympathy with the strong, and boundless, 
deathless charity for all. He who has entered the Church 
has become a student of the noblest academy; not the 
mere college of sciences, but the university of souls. His 
books must be selected, not merely from the dead letters 
of a printed page, but from the living indelible epistles of a 
myriad of human hearts. Gentlemen, in you I recognise 
the subjects of my future study. It is said by them of old 
time that the minister is the teacher of the people ; I think 
that in all which is worthy to be known the people are 
the teachers of the minister. But little acquainted, as yet, 
with the personal cares of life, young in years and younger 
in experience, I come to find in your cares that power 
which is perfect through suffering; to gain in your ex- 
perience that wisdom which grows in favour alike with 
God and man ; and if in long time to come my maturing 
mind shall give back to you the fruits you lent it — if the 
bread you shall have cast on the waters shall return to 
you again after many days — I will deem that, with all its 
frailties and shortcomings and imperfections, my ministry 
in Innellan shall not have proved in vain. 

It will be evident from this brilliant speech 
that Matheson had now reached that maturity of 
mind which characterised, for the most part, all his 
subsequent utterances. The first thing that strikes 
one in his address is its perfect taste. The graceful 
allusions to his two immediate predecessors are a 
proof of that generous recognition of the worth of 
others which was one of the most notable traits in 
his nature. The spontaneous manner, again, in 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 99 



which he throws himself upon the forbearance of 
his new congregation, and the humble attitude he 
assumes towards them as their teacher, won at 
once that confidence and loyal support which never 
failed him. In fine, his outlook upon the intellectual 
and religious needs of the day, which called forth 
all that was highest and best in the modern pulpit, 
showed that he was thoroughly alive to the signs 
of the times, and was determined to spare no effort 
in proving that the resources of the Christian 
religion were able to supply the spiritual needs of 
every man in every age. Add to all this, the 
charm of style and the power of delivery which 
even then he possessed in a marked degree, and it 
will require no straining of the imagination to 
conceive the effect which his oration had upon his 
hearers. Everyone felt that, whatever his future 
among them might be, there could be no doubt of 
his brilliant gifts of head and heart and utterance. 

The last of the three supreme events in 
Matheson's settlement at Innellan had still to 
take place. This was his formal introduction to 
his congregation on the following Sunday. To 
whom should this honoured duty be assigned 
but to Dr. Macduff, the friend of his youth and 
his revered pastor, whose pulpit too he had, as 
assistant minister in Sandyford, recently filled ? 
Macduff s name in those days was one to conjure 
with. He was one of the most popular preachers 
in Scotland, and his reputation in the west of 
Scotland was second only to those of Norman 

LOFC 



100 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



Macleod and John Caird. The occasion was a 
great one for Innellan. The seaside village held 
its head high on that beautiful spring Sunday 
morning, when the hour of service drew the people 
from far and near to listen to Dr. Macduff and to 
celebrate the introduction of the young minister to 
his flock. The little church was crowded to the 
doors by a congregation representing the wealth 
and culture of the city and the simple rustic life of 
the village itself, and the interest reached its 
climax when, at the close of the sermon, Dr. Mac- 
duff addressed the congregation as follows : 

I appear here to-day to discharge a pleasing and 
interesting duty. It is a time-honoured custom in our 
Church, on the Sabbath succeeding the solemn service of 
ordination, to introduce the new minister to the flock over 
whom in God's providence he has been placed. This, I 
need not say, in the present case is almost, indeed in one 
sense, entirely superfluous, as he who now occupies that 
sacred and endearing relation is one with whose voice and 
with whose friendship you are already well familiar. I 
do not regret, however, that it has been deemed fitting 
that there should be no departure on this occasion from 
use and wont, as it gives me the opportunity of expressing 
my unfeigned gratification that the day has arrived when 
my excellent young friend stands before you and the 
Church fully equipped for his great Master's service, and 
for the career of usefulness and blessing which I trust he 
has before him. If I dared mingle personal feeling with 
a public duty, it would be to say that I hail the advent of 
this hour with all the pride and affection of one who has 
watched with tender interest the development of your 
pastor's mind and character from early and precocious 
boyhood. It would be alike unnecessary and unbecoming 
in me in this place to dilate on the combination of natural 
gifts with which he has been endowed, or on that manful 



MATHESON OF IN NELL AN 101 

and heroic struggle achieved over difficulties which to 
most would have been insurmountable. 

Intellect and genius have in these days many ready 
outlets, and had literary success been his only aspiration 
few would have more easily secured it than he. But I 
rejoice that with unwavering resolution he has adhered to 
his early formed purpose of consecrating himself to the 
service of the Redeemer, casting the gifts of nature, 
sanctified by grace, at the foot of the Cross, and enrolling 
himself in that honoured band who are embarked in that 
angel-work of promoting God's cause and glory. 

I have spoken of intellectual acquirements ; these are 
undoubtedly a vast possession, but they are only, after all, 
the part of a great whole. The greatest mental gifts are 
incomplete without the complement of higher, nobler 
qualities. The head is nothing without the heart. I 
would rather have the humblest mediocrity of talent, 
combined with tender, genuine, unselfish kindness and 
sympathy, than all the intellect of the schools. I know 
that in my dear friend the didactic or preaching power of 
the pulpit will be accompanied and followed by the keen 
and kindly sensibilities of a warm and affectionate heart 
in his daily intercourse with his people. If, indeed, there 
is one attribute of his nature more conspicuous than 
another, it is his constant and unvarying cheerfulness, as 
if the dimming to him of the outer world were compensated 
by a gladder and brighter inner sunshine. And there is 
yet one other diviner gift, which to those who are engaged 
in the work of the ministry is more precious still either 
than intellectual power or human kindliness ; and this is 
the influence radiating from the spiritual, regenerated 
being, the celestial unction of vital piety. This glorifies 
all else. As it has been beautifully said, in illustrating 
another subject, it is the figure standing before the other 
ciphers which invests them with untold significance and 
value. I believe you will come soon to know that, in the 
case of him who is set over you in the Lord, there is no 
absence of this crowning gift. 

While what may be called the young pulpit of Scot- 
land is too often in these days characterised by unprofit- 



102 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



able disquisitions, giving heed, in the words of St. Paul, to 
" what minister to questions, rather than godly edifying 
which is in faith," your young minister will, I think, give 
you proof and evidence that he values above all the 
teaching of the Cross, and that profound and vigorous 
thought and apt illustration are not incompatible either 
with simplicity of style and language, or with evangelical 
fervour. 

May the Great Head of the Church, with His own 
abundant blessing, hallow the relation which from this 
day onwards connects pastor and people. May this con- 
tinue to be the end of his conversation — " Jesus Christ the 
same yesterday, to-day, and for ever." May he long be 
spared to be a polished shaft in his Master's quiver, and 
after a laborious and honoured ministry receive the crown 
which awaits the good and faithful servant. 

The young minister was thus launched upon 
his new sphere under the happiest auspices. What- 
ever opposition existed soon died away ; his frank 
and friendly attitude towards the people, apart 
altogether from his commanding ability in the 
pulpit, speedily won the confidence and affection 
of all ranks and classes. Indeed, it is a minister's 
personal relations to his congregation, his un- 
affected welcome of them when they call, and his 
kindly interest in them when he visits their homes, 
that give him an influence which his preaching, 
however excellent, would never enable him to 
secure. Innellan was an ideal place for a man 
like Matheson to begin his ministry in. He was 
quite aware of this himself, for while he was a 
student he declared on visiting it that he would 
like on some future day to be its minister. The 
population numbered a few hundreds only ; for 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 103 



eight months in the year there was only one service, 
and during the other four months he had the 
stimulus of a crowded, intelligent, and thoroughly 
appreciative congregation. This made the burden 
of the second service easy, and during the long 
winter months the anticipation of the summer 
services kept him, if that were necessary, up to the 
mark. But he very soon found that among the 
natives there were brains quite as capable, and 
hearts as quick in their responsiveness, as among 
the Glasgow merchants and their families who 
composed the bulk of his hearers in the summer- 
time. Norman Macleod was in the habit of saying, 
that even in the editing of Good Words the man 
that he always kept in his eye and wrote up to 
was the level-headed engineer. Dr. Matheson in 
his preaching had much the same aim, and if at 
any time in his flights he soared over the heads of 
his congregation, there were always present some 
who could follow him, though it were at a distance, 
and catch his meaning, even if they could not 
fully understand all its bearings and significance. 

One is able to describe, in a word, the tenor of 
Matheson's life, in its ministerial aspect, during 
the whole of his eighteen years' residence in 
Innellan. On the Sunday afternoon, when the 
day's work was over, he would select the text of 
his next sermon, and for a few days following he 
would ponder over it. Towards the middle of the 
week he would begin to dictate it to his secretary, 
and by the Saturday morning it was done. As he 



104 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



himself was in the habit of remarking: " At the begin- 
ning of the week it was without form or void, but 
at the end he was always able to pronounce it to 
be very good ! " This was his habit, week in week 
out, and even when he was on holiday he wrote his 
sermon, so that he was well in advance of any 
emergency. In the summer-time he preached in 
the evening one of the sermons that he had 
delivered to his congregation during the preceding 
winter. This was a prudent practice, for, as this 
service was attended almost entirely by strangers 
who had never heard the sermon, it would have 
been a work of supererogation to have composed 
a fresh one specially for their use. Besides, as in 
those earlier years, the discourse was written out in 
full, and committed verbatim, — the composition and 
memorising of two new sermons every week would 
have been subjecting himself to an unnecessary 
and unwise strain. He was in* the habit at first 
of reading, after the ordinary manner, portions of 
Scripture as a part of the service, but after a time 
he substituted for this a brief exposition of certain 
passages of the Old and New Testaments ; and 
having discovered, both to himself and to his 
people, his wonderful faculty in this respect, he, to 
their delight and profit, continued this practice to 
the end. His favourite book for these addresses 
was the Book of Psalms, and I have before me, 
as I write, several manuscript volumes which em- 
brace the whole of the Psalter and other sections 
of Holy Writ, filled with these expository notes. 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 105 



They are so carefully done that a man with a touch 
of Matheson's mind and genius could easily repro- 
duce them. 

It may be of interest to picture Matheson as he 
appeared in the pulpit of Innellan Church on any 
Sunday morning during these memorable years. 
Take a Sunday in the month of July or of August, 
when the little place was full of visitors, every villa 
and cottage along the shore, from the Bullwood to 
Toward Point, being occupied by families drawn 
from far and near, but chiefly from the great city of 
the west. It was a gay sight, and also an impressive 
one, filling the mind with what was best in Scottish 
Sabbath-day observance, to see whole families 
emerging from their doorways and gradually con- 
centrating on the little kirk that crowned the hill. 
The murmur of the wavelets as they broke upon 
the shore, the song of birds, and the humming of 
bees that clustered round the limes that led to the 
sanctuary, were nature's sympathy with the service 
of human hearts and voices that was soon to be 
engaged in, and seemed to beckon the worshippers 
to the house of God. 

After the congregation was seated there appeared 
from the vestry, through a door immediately behind 
the pulpit, the young preacher, whose fame, already 
fast spreading, had drawn to hear him that day as 
representative and eager a body of hearers as could 
be found in any church in Scotland. As he stood up 
one saw that he was above the middle height. He 
had a spare form and a pleasant ruddy countenance, 



106 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



and his eye, albeit unseeing, had that penetrating 
look which seemed to read the secret thought, and 
gave one the notion of any other quality than that 
of blindness. There was a buoyancy, a cheerfulness, 
a hopefulness in his very appearance and attitude, 
and a self-confidence, the farthest removed from 
self-assertion, which put everyone at his ease. In 
a clear ringing voice, which one would characterise 
as a rich baritone, he gave out the Psalm to be 
sung, repeating the first verse, and then sitting 
down. The opening prayer was a thing to be re- 
membered. It consisted, at that time, of appropriate 
selections from the English and other prayer-books, 
with additions of his own, but the manner in which 
it was offered up was altogether his own ; he 
breathed into the ancient words the breath of a 
fervent spirit, and made the eternal desires of the 
human heart an offering, for the day and hour, for 
himself and those who heard him. In later years 
he broke loose from the trammels of liturgical forms, 
and led his congregation in those original prayers 
which came to be regarded as a unique part of his 
ministry. The other psalms and hymns were given 
out in the same fashion as the first, and the inter- 
cessory prayer was quite as impressive as the prayer 
of confession and thanksgiving. 

The beadle on taking the books to the pulpit, 
before the appearance of the minister, always left 
the Bible open on the book-board, so that when 
Matheson gave out the portions of Scripture to be 
read or expounded, or when he announced his text 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 107 



for the day, he could look down upon the open 
page, and without any pretence to deceive he could 
foster the illusion that he was reading. In this we 
see a touch of true art, not only permissible but 
commendable, for it prevented the minds of his 
hearers being distracted from the service and the 
message he had to deliver by reflections on his 
blindness. Indeed, to my knowledge, many have 
heard him preach and gone away with the impres- 
sion that he could see like other men. Accordingly, 
when he came to read the lessons for the day he 
did so as if he were really reading them. The 
chapter and the verse were announced, and then 
followed the repetition of each word and sentence. 
Sometimes the passage was a long one, but never 
on a single occasion was he known to make a slip 
or a mistake. 

It was, however, when he came to his sermon 
that the interest of his hearers quickened and 
deepened. His discourse in those days seldom 
lasted more than twenty minutes, but it was almost 
always a gem of the first water, perfect in thought, 
in form, in diction, and in delivery. He usually 
seized the mind of his hearers in the first sentence. 
He struck a note which they never thought of 
before, but which they felt to be true. He even 
then displayed his rare gift of setting old texts in a 
new light, and giving a reading to a well-worn 
passage which was at once startling in its freshness 
and impressive for its truth. He opened up his 
subject by a brief and luminous introduction, and 



108 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



by what seemed a logical necessity his theme pre- 
sented itself under three heads or aspects. These 
he would develop in detail, enforcing his points by 
argument and illustration, each paragraph leading 
up to the climax of thought and impassioned utter- 
ance, which swayed all breasts. The peroration 
was usually followed by a brief application of the 
principles which his theme inculcated. All this was 
done without the slightest straining after effect : his 
gestures were few, an occasional raising of the right 
hand and a slight movement of the body ; but one 
felt that the preacher's heart and mind were on fire, 
that behind all there was a restraining will and a 
commanding personality. The man, after all, was 
felt to be more than the preacher, and the oftener 
he was listened to the more convinced were his 
hearers that there was a reserve of thought and 
strength which could only be exhausted by death. 

It was not long before he came to be known as 
" Matheson of Innellan," and by the close of his 
ministry there his name was as closely identified 
with the place as Frederick William Robertson's 
was with Brighton. Summer after summer many 
families came to Innellan for the purpose mainly 
of hearing Matheson preach. There was one man 
in particular who for his sake visited the seaside 
resort for thirteen years in succession. On Mathe- 
son's departure he came no more. This made the 
preacher a valuable asset in the finances of Innellan. 
The prosperity of the place depended entirely on 
its popularity as a summer quarter, and it was of 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 109 



importance to the people, who made their living 
largely by house-letting, to have as their minister 
one who proved so great an attraction. The 
demand for houses was unprecedented ; the rents 
were proportionately high, and the season corre- 
spondingly prolonged. It is not surprising that 
Mr. Charles Turner, banker and session clerk, the 
one man in the place who understood this aspect 
of the life and interests of the people better than 
any other should declare that " it was a great loss 
to Innellan when Dr. Matheson left, and the people 
knew this well. He was our one and great attrac- 
tion. Visitors have often told me that the reason 
why they came, summer after summer, was that 
they might sit and listen to him." 

It would be as unfair to the people of Innellan 
as it would be untrue to fact to say that this was 
the only reason why they valued him. They 
admired his preaching, respected his character, and 
were proud of his reputation. He gave them a 
new ideal of religion ; he opened up their minds, 
and made them impatient of anything in the way 
of preaching that was inferior or even commonplace. 
I remember, as a boy, being sent to the pier on the 
Saturday evening to watch the arrival of the last 
steamer. My commission was to see whether it 
was Matheson himself, or a substitute, that landed 
for the purpose of conducting the service on the 
following day. This would very likely be in the 
late autumn, towards the close of his holidays. The 
report soon spread, and if it was a stranger who 



110 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



was to officiate very few of the villagers found their 
way to church that morning. 

He soon began to be much sought after on 
special occasions. Whenever a liberal collection 
was desired by the office-bearers of a church, the 
minister of Innellan was approached, in order that 
he might give his services. Large congregations 
gathered to hear him, first in the west, and, as 
his fame spread, in almost every part of the country. 
His name became a household word all over 
Scotland. Indeed, it speedily began to be known 
far beyond the borders of his own country. 
Searchers after truth, men whose faith was 
distressed, and others who were interested in 
spiritual and theological matters, found their way 
to the seaside village, their sole purpose being to 
hear Matheson. Not a few of them gave an 
account of their impressions in one or other of the 
periodicals of the day. It is thus that one such 
visitor writes of a Sunday service in Innellan 
Church : 

I have a delightful recollection of the day on which 
I first heard him, several years ago now, when he was 
minister of Innellan. It was my privilege, one delightful 
Sunday morning, to hear him preach in his little well-filled 
church, and I shall never forget the freshness, power, and 
eloquence of his words on that occasion. I went expect- 
ing to see a venerable man, with " countenance sicklied 
o'er with the pale cast of thought," and was not a little 
surprised to see a man under forty, strong, ruddy, possessed 
of a voice of great compass and power, and whose every 
movement in the pulpit suggested a personality of vast 
energy and commanding force, yet blended with wonderful 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 111 



tenderness and graciousness. He seemed to be looking 
the congregation full in the face, so that it was difficult 
to believe that he had been, in early life, deprived of the 
great gift of sight. I left the church that September 
morning wondering how it could happen that a man of 
such splendid parts had never been drawn away to some 
larger sphere. I thought of the pulpits in Glasgow, 
Edinburgh, London, and other great cities, often so in- 
adequately filled, and it seemed to me that a moral wrong 
was being inflicted on the Christian Church, for the services 
of so remarkable and powerful a man to be confined to so 
limited a sphere. 

Another visitor to Innellan, writing a few years 
later, says : 

I have heard Dr. Guthrie and Principal Caird, Norman 
Macleod and Principal Tulloch, and, in the English Church, 
the Bishop of Wakefield, the Master of the Temple, Stopford 
Brooke and Professor Momerie, and while not depreciating 
any of those distinguished divines, I say that there is a 
power of eloquence wielded by Dr. Matheson which places 
him on a level with any or all of them, while in originality 
of conception, and forcible, quaint expression, he excels 
them all. 

There was a pastoral and practical side to 
Matheson's character which found scope in Innellan, 
limited though its opportunities were. He visited 
his people, he was most attentive in cases of sick- 
ness and sorrow, and he discharged the other 
duties of his calling with unfailing promptitude 
and punctuality. His prayers, at the bedside 
inspired sufferers with a fresh courage and a new 
hope, and the outpouring of his soul at funerals 
bridged the gulf which separated the Here and 
the Hereafter, and confirmed the faith of the 



112 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



mourners in the blessed truth of immortality. 
Every baptismal service was to him the promise 
of a new birth. He was passionately fond of 
children, and won his way to the mother's heart 
when he tenderly inquired for the ' 'wee things." 
Marriage bells were ever to him bells of joy, 
ringing in the larger hope for the individual and 
humanity. The humblest member of his flock 
was received at the Manse with a genial welcome, 
and he honoured the social customs of his people ; 
himself setting the example of moderation in all 
things. During the winter months he heartily 
fell in with any scheme that might be proposed 
for the brightening of that dull season. He fre- 
quently presided at social gatherings and delivered 
lectures, doing his best at all times to inspire the 
minds of his people with an earnest quest after 
the higher things of the intellect and the heart. 
Nor did he neglect the summer visitors. He was 
frequently seen in the afternoons, accompanied by 
his sister or his secretary, calling upon those who 
attended his church and supported it by their 
liberality ; nor was he loath to receive them at his 
own house, and to entertain them with that 
hospitality for which he, then and afterwards, was 
so well known. 

Matheson had not been more than two or 
three years at Innellan when steps were taken 
for the building of a manse, and for the erection 
of the charge into a parish. This necessitated 
the raising of a capital sum by the congregation 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 113 



and their friends of something like three thousand 
pounds ; and it says much for their enthusiasm 
and energy that by the end of 1873 the twofold 
object was accomplished. A few years after- 
wards the spire of the church was completed, a 
bell presented, and, in the year of Matheson's 
translation to St. Bernard's, plans were prepared 
and arrangements completed for a further extension 
of the church. All this reflects, in the highest 
degree, not only on Matheson's popularity, but 
also on his practical foresight and power of lead- 
ing his congregation. He had the faculty of 
conducting the meetings of his office-bearers in 
such a way as to secure their hearty co-operation 
in everything that concerned the good of the 
church. " One thing I greatly admired in Dr. 
Matheson," writes one who acted for some time 
as his session clerk, " was the able way in which 
he conducted the meetings of office-bearers. He 
trusted them, and everyone was more anxious 
than another to do all he could for him and the 
church." The following letter, written to his old 
friend Mr. William Stevenson, who was his right- 
hand man in every scheme that was initiated for 
the good of the church, shows at once Matheson's 
tact, business faculty, and generous handling both 
of men and of money matters : — 

Manse, Innellan, 
October 2, 1879. 

I yesterday received the sum of two pounds sterling 

from Mr. . It was given gratuitously out of his own 

pocket to liquidate the spire debt. As I have promised 
8 



114 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



to give other two, the debt is now reduced to three pounds 
and a few shillings. I had a call yesterday morning from 

Mr. . He insists that he shall be informed of the 

date of our Annual Meeting, and that to suit him it must 
be held during the day ; in whatever part of the country 
he is, he will come to it. He wants any overplus funds 
of the church to be appropriated to certain projects with 
which his head is on fire. I would like you, when the 
meeting comes, to try and prevent any encroachment on 
what was done at your instigation last year. Beyond 

this I would be disposed to humour . I do not desire 

any more money, and I do think there are required by 
the church certain improvements which would require 
all the spare funds, if not more. I merely want to hint, 
meantime, that I see something like a storm signal for 
next meeting. 

Believe me, etc. 

The phase of Matheson's life and work at 
Innellan that has now been dealt with may be 
summed up in the following reminiscences by one 
who knew him well, and who was closely associated 
with him during this period of his ministry ; I mean 
Dr. J. B. Watt of Ayr :— 

During the College summer vacation of 1867 I had 
the delight and privilege of becoming associated with the 
Rev. Dr. George Matheson as reader and amanuensis. At 
this time he had been left in charge of Sandyford Church, 
during the absence of Dr. Macduff in Palestine. He had 
been suddenly appointed ; and his work, it having been 
changed from that of a probationer to that of a pastor, 
for the time, of a most important Glasgow congregation, 
necessitated very active study. Reading had to be done 
in all fields of theology and other allied departments of 
knowledge. Sermons had to be composed and written 
out, psalms and lessons committed to memory, besides 
the visitation of all ranks had to be undertaken ; but his 
master mind showed itself in every detail, and when work 

I 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 115 



was over for the day he greatly enjoyed his evening's 
recreation. What struck one first was his amazing 
ability to commit to memory sermons and lessons after 
one or two readings. At first the active work was some- 
what of an effort, which, however, he steadily overcame. 
It has been said that "without music man is but half 
complete." Matheson fulfilled this conception of the 
finished man, and his singing of " John Peel " and other 
songs delighted all who were privileged to hear him. 
Story-telling was another of his great delights, and no 
matter how often he told his tales, his own enjoyment was 
so transparent, and his hearty laugh so infectious, that 
one always welcomed them again. The summer ended, 
work at College had to be resumed, and we were parted 
for a period of some years. But, as good fortune would 
have it, after visits at rare intervals at Innellan, where he 
had now gone, I became settled in practice there in 1871, 
for a year, and our friendship was renewed, became 
closer, and our meetings were as frequent as our duties 
would allow. Entering fully into his life there, I became 
the secretary of his flourishing church, and experienced 
great pleasure in co-operating with him in the schemes 
that were then on foot for the building of the Manse and 
the endowing of the charge. During that summer he 
and I took a holiday to London for a couple of weeks, 
doing the sights, and meeting many friends of previous 
College days, and not a few of the well-known writers and 
poets — G. A. Sala, H. S. Leigh, etc. — in whose company his 
rich personality found genial expression. At this time 
nothing important had appeared from his pen, but his 
preaching was entrancing. His extraordinary flow of 
poetic language, and his vivid descriptions, held one spell- 
bound till the end of the service. During the brief year 
of my life in Innellan our intimacy was one of most un- 
reserved confidence; and though I was the familiar 
repository of, I believe, his most secret thoughts, such 
was the transparency and purity of his nature that death 
itself could do little to enhance the sacredness of the 
affection with which I regarded his character, and now 
revere his memory. 



116 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



Two important changes took place in Matheson's 
preaching while he was at Innellan. They radically 
affected both its matter and manner, and had far- 
reaching results. In Dr. Watts reminiscences 
there is a tribute to Matheson's remarkable 
memory. Two readings of a sermon, of a psalm, 
or of the lesson for the day, were sufficient to enable 
him to repeat it without a mistake. For the first 
twelve years of his career he was in the habit of 
committing his sermon to memory. As this in- 
volved little trouble, and as he delivered his 
discourse with an ease which suggested extemporary 
speaking, neither he nor anyone else saw reason 
why it should be changed. He evidently enjoyed 
this method of preaching, and his hearers shared 
his enjoyment to the full. But one Sunday morn- 
ing an event happened which suddenly transformed 
his former practice. At the time it looked like a 
catastrophe, but it proved to be his salvation. 
While in the flow of his oratory he abruptly 
stopped. The sudden collapse caused a profound 
sensation. Not only was it absolutelyunprecedented, 
but he was never known to have been at a loss for 
a word or to have been subject to the slightest 
hesitancy. Matheson was equal to the occasion. 
He quietly announced to the congregation that, so 
far as the sermon which he had prepared for their 
hearing that morning was concerned, his mind was 
a perfect blank. He then gave out a psalm and 
sat down. After it had been sung, he rose, gave 
out a fresh text, and from it preached a sermon 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 117 



with all his wonted freedom, eloquence, and 
vigour. 

The surprise ought to be, that a collapse of 
this kind had not happened long before. It was 
not due to any failing of memory, to lack of prep- 
aration, or the impairing of any faculty whatso- 
ever. It was entirely due to the steady enrichment 
of his mental and spiritual nature by years of con- 
stant reading and profound meditation and study. 
His mind had become so full, he was so armed 
with intellectual weapons, fresh thoughts were 
bubbling up in his soul so irrepressibly, that in 
the middle of his prepared discourse a happy 
suggestion protruded itself which he felt impelled 
to develop. Once he had developed this thought 
he had lost the thread of his old one, or, at all 
events, the words which ought to have appeared 
for expression failed to be forthcoming, and he 
only stated the sober truth when he declared that 
so far as the sermon in hand was concerned his 
"mind was a perfect blank." It cost him no 
trouble to preach another sermon, his mind was 
full of discourses which he had delivered on many 
occasions ; but it shows his complete mastery over 
himself, and confidence in his own powers, that he 
so quickly recovered his self-possession, which in 
fact was never altogether lost, and felt his ability 
to deliver another discourse without any fear of a 
breakdown. 

This must have happened in the year 1878, 
for I find from that time onward none of his 



118 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



sermons are written out in full. Up to that 
period sixteen volumes are filled with his discourses, 
and each one is complete, except that occasionally 
the practical application at the end is simply- 
indicated by a note. But from this time onwards 
there is a marked curtailment ; the space in 
manuscript is reduced to a half, and, in a very 
short time, to a tenth part of what the sermon 
formerly occupied. He now adopted the method 
of preparing a skeleton only. Each skeleton 
seldom occupies more than a page, if so much ; 
but the thoughts are so pregnant, the subject so 
carefully arranged, the divisions so clear, the 
suggested illustrations so apt, that anyone with a 
power of extemporary speech and with a mind in 
sympathy with Matheson's could, after a few hours' 
meditation, deliver from them a sermon that might 
be telling in the extreme. One can accordingly 
understand what a power these notes would be in 
the hands of a man like Matheson. Anyone who 
listened to his conversation must have been im- 
pressed by the readiness and conciseness of his 
utterance. He could put a thought into a nut- 
shell ; he could demolish an argument by a 
quotation or an epigram. His poetic mind was 
kept under the control of a strong will, which 
always compelled the thought into the channel 
which he had meant for it, and directed the arrow 
of his fancy to the object at which he was aiming. 
His logical faculty was much more pronounced 
than those who are accustomed to argument by 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 119 



syllogism were aware of. The truths which he 
enforced often soared on the wings of imagination, 
and his matter-of-fact hearers thought they were 
lost in the clouds ; but those who were able to 
follow him on such occasions felt that there was 
reason in his madness, and recognised the force 
of his logic when the discourse was done. 

For the subsequent, which fortunately was the 
longer, period of Dr. Matheson's ministry, his 
preaching gained in spontaneity, directness, and 
power. He came into the pulpit after hours of 
meditation, with his subject clearly held in his 
mind. He put himself at once in touch with his 
audience, and trusting to his marvellous power of 
extemporary utterance, which had been trained by 
long years of patient labour, he poured out his 
whole soul and carried his hearers captive. It 
was now that those who came to hear him dis- 
covered the man, as well as the preacher. He 
stood before them as he was, and gave them not 
only the best of his thought but of himself, Sunday 
after Sunday. This was a joy to him as to them, 
and although for the moment he experienced that 
ease and freedom which are shared by those who 
have the gift of extemporary speech, still virtue 
went out of him. The strain upon the physical 
frame may have been too much. The spiritual and 
mental nature itself only grew richer and deeper. 

Of more importance perhaps than the change 
in the manner, was that which took place in the 
substance of his preaching. This change was 



120 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



anterior to the other. It took place during the 
first or second year of his ministry at Innellan. 
It reached far down, and shook the foundations 
of his faith. The result was a temporary un- 
hinging, a threatened collapse, of his religious 
beliefs. Nor should anyone express surprise at 
this, any more than he should at the break- 
down in the manner of his preaching. Both were 
bound to come. One cannot conceive a man 
like Matheson passing through life without being 
called upon to reconsider his theological bearings. 
He was brought up on the traditional beliefs of 
his day. His boyhood and youth were passed in 
a period of extreme orthodoxy. He was educated 
under a ministry which was noted for its evan- 
gelical fervour; and even Pulsford, whom he 
declares to have set his soul on fire, never 
disputed the evidences which were explicitly 
accepted in his day. It was the spiritual genius 
of Pulsford rather than his theological speculations 
which quickened Matheson's nature. It is true 
that John Caird had been gradually groping his 
way in the direction of a new outlook upon 
traditional and current theology. He had been 
bitten by the speculative methods of the German 
philosophers ; and his lectures, as Professor of 
Divinity, were largely influenced by their spirit 
and method. But the remarkable fact is that, at 
the time, Caird's influence upon Matheson would 
seem to have been extremely slight. It is perfectly 
certain, at any rate, that he was not tempted to 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 121 

assume that negative attitude towards the current 
method of regarding Divine truth which was 
adopted by many of those who came under the 
influence of Caird's teaching. The Professor 
himself, it need hardly be said, never wavered in 
his allegiance to what is truly essential in the 
Christian religion. Indeed, he was the helper of 
those who had the power to follow him in his 
search after eternal truth ; and the inspiration of 
his teaching and character was deeply felt by 
those who sat under him. But a spirit of negation 
began to possess not a few of those who at the 
time were affected by the new outlook upon 
theology. Matheson never fell under its spell, 
nor had he as a student become thoroughly imbued 
with the positive spirit which reconstructed afresh 
the forms of belief after criticism had done its work 
with them. He was evidently content for the time 
being to walk in the old paths, and to light them 
up with flashes of imagination and poetry. He 
could not, however, live long in a frail house of this 
kind ; the crash was bound to come, and when it 
did come his theological tabernacle was a mass of 
ruins. 

Ten years before his death, referring to this 
experience, which could never be forgotten by 
him, he said : 

At one time, with a great thrill of horror, I found 
myself an absolute atheist. After being ordained at 
Innellan, I believed nothing ; neither God nor im- 
mortality. I tendered my resignation to the Presbytery, 



122 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



but to their honour they would not accept it, even though 
a Highland Presbytery. They said I was a young man, 
and would change. I have changed. 

I do not think that the matter ever came to so 
acute a crisis ecclesiastically. There is no evidence 
that the subject came officially before the court, 
although he undoubtedly was quite willing that it 
should do so, and had taken the first step towards 
this result. I possess a letter from an honoured 
minister of the Church, who at the time was a co- 
Presbyter of Matheson's, which throws some light 
on the question : 

With regard to a resignation, certainly nothing of the 
kind ever came before the Presbytery while I was a 
member. Your letter, however, brings to mind a circum- 
stance I had long forgotten. In a conversation with the 
late Dr. Cameron of Dunoon, a friend of Dr. Matheson's, 
and leader of the Presbytery in those days, he mentioned 
that Matheson had thought of giving up the ministry, 
for the reason you indicate. He spoke of it, however, 
as a thing past and done with. I never heard any other 
member of Presbytery refer to the subject. I do not 
think they could have known anything about it. I had 
forgotten it altogether until your letter recalled it. As 
Dr. Matheson was in the Presbytery of Dunoon some 
three years after I left it, it is, of course, just possible 
that he may have taken more decisive steps afterwards. 
I do not think this is probable, as I should have been 
sure to hear of it in the course of my coming and 
going, and meeting with his co-Presbyters. The im- 
pression left on my mind by Dr. Cameron was, that the 
matter had not gone beyond the stage of conversation, 
and, though grave, was but a passing phase of thought. 

It is not difficult to reconcile Matheson's state- 
ment with this letter. He had never been in the 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 123 



habit of attending meetings of Presbytery. Ac- 
cordingly, when such a matter as the one under 
consideration had to be dealt with, it was natural 
that he should do it through a friend, who might 
bring it up before the court in due course. Matheson 
was perfectly honest at the time in his resolu- 
tion, and one cannot be too grateful to Dr. Cameron 
for counselling him to pause before the subject 
should be officially communicated to the Presbytery. 
His friend must have known that it was impossible 
for a spiritually-minded man like Matheson to 
remain for any length of time an atheist. The 
darkness could only be temporary ; new light was 
sure to dawn upon the troubled mind. 

This new light came from the philosophy of 
Hegel. Matheson's first introduction to the system 
of the great German thinker was at the hands of 
Dr. Caird. After his induction to Innellan he took 
up the study of theology and philosophy afresh, and 
with great thoroughness and earnestness. The 
practical work of the ministry, the necessity of not 
only thinking upon religion, but of presenting it, 
Sunday after Sunday, in a way satisfactory to his 
own mind and helpful to his hearers, brought him 
face to face with his fundamental beliefs, caused 
him to search for them, and, if found, to examine 
them. To his amazement he discovered the search 
to be in vain. He had in reality no fundamental 
beliefs to examine. He had accepted the traditional 
views, and had never really inquired into their 
absolute truth or their living relation to his own 



124 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



soul. Most men are content to pass on through 
life without ever questioning the doctrines which 
they inherit. They may be reputed to be orthodox, 
and are among the first to cast stones at those who 
dare to inquire. Matheson could not possibly be 
numbered with this class. The day of his visita- 
tion was sure to come ; and it came to him, as it did 
to Robertson of Brighton, like a thief in the night. 
The famous Brighton preacher fled to the Tyrol, and 
in the solitude of its mountains and forests wrestled 
with his doubts until the dawn. Matheson's battle 
of the soul was fought in the quiet village of Innellan, 
and his lost faith was restored through him whose 
philosophy makes true to the spirit what criticism 
or unbelief may have rendered false to the mind. 

" They," observed Matheson, referring to the 
Presbytery of Dunoon, 

said I was a young man, and would change. I have 
changed. Without hypocrisy I preach all the old doctrines 
and use all the old forms, but with deeper meaning. 
My theological sympathies are in favour of breadth, 
but not negation. It is a great mistake to suppose 
that there is any advantage, or disadvantage, in being 
broad or narrow, long or short, high or low. The ques- 
tion is : What is it that is broad ? Is it broadcloth or 
broad shoulders? Therefore I do not value an opinion 
simply because it is a negative opinion, and different from 
use and wont. I am as broad as can be, but it is a broad 
positive. 

In this he spoke the truth. These few sentences 
give the key to his theological position — a position 
which he gained as a young man at Innellan, and 
which he never lost. He may in after years have 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 125 



deepened spiritually, but intellectually he stood fast 
to his profound belief in Christianity, in the ideas 
which it embodies. These he was convinced were 
from all time, and for all time. The " Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world," the sacrificial 
element in Christianity was, he believed, the thought 
which God had from the beginning in His mind ; and 
upon it the plan of the whole universe, the course 
of history, and the life of the individual were based. 
Christ, in the flesh, was the revealer and inter- 
preter of all this. It was in the philosophy of 
Hegel that he found the key to the mystery ; and 
he rejoiced with joy unspeakable when what was 
dark was illumined, and when his lost faith was 
restored in a new and living form. In a letter 
written at a much later date to his friend Dr. 
Gloag, he, in speaking of Lichtenberger's History 
of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 
which had just been translated by the late 
Professor Hastie, refers to this point : 

I am glad you like Lichtenberger. I bought the book 
some time ago and I am already half through. It is truly- 
delightful reading, full of information and replete with 
epigrammatic beauty. There is a chapter on Schiller and 
Goethe which reads like a novel. I think the author's 
own mind is rather French than German — more brilliant 
than profound. He has no adequate appreciation of the 
Hegelian school, nor do I think him altogether just to 
what he calls the reactionary party — the men of high and 
dry orthodoxy. But with these reservations the book is 
admirable, and you will thoroughly enjoy it. Regarding 
my own views and projects I shall at present say nothing. 
It is a subject on which I always like best to express my- 
self verbally. I may say generally, however, that the man 



126 MATHESON OF INNELLAN 



of all others who expresses most my personal belief is 
Pfleiderer. I am every year more persuaded that the ideal 
is the reality, and that the study of Church History ought 
to be a study of the genesis and development of the 
Christian ideal. I believe that the ideal of the Christian 
life is itself the supernatural creation in the heart of man, 
and that it must have existed before the historical Christ. 
Because without its previous presence the beauty of the 
Christ of History would have been unintelligible. I 
cannot go further here. 

Keeping this expression of his position in mind, 
one is able to read with intelligence the long series 
of books and articles which he began to write a 
few years after his induction at Innellan ; and 
should his sermons ever be published, their in- 
ward significance will be made plain in the light 
of it. His writings cover a large field ; they deal 
with a great variety of subjects ; they may be said 
to differ in type, but through them all can be traced 
his conception of the truth which this letter more 
than indicates, and his attitude towards the world of 
thought and life as a whole, which he meant by 
classing himself under the category of the " broad 
positive." The spirit of Christianity, the ideal 
which it embodies, and the central Figure in 
whom it was realised, became part and parcel of 
Matheson's nature. He had during that struggle 
at Innellan not only reconceived but relived his 
faith. Two extracts from his sermons may here be 
given. They will at once illustrate the advance 
made by him since his probationer days, and the 
way in which he expounded and enforced his re- 
constructed faith. Preaching at Innellan in the 



MATHESON OF INNELLAN 127 



year 1878, on the subject of "building on the 
foundation" (1 Cor. iii. 12-14), ne remarks: 

We hear familiarly in the present day of the broad and 
the narrow Church. The distinction is a real one, but it is 
not always what is implied. Every church is narrow which 
has not Christ for its foundation, every church is broad 
which is built upon the Son of Man. Every form of 
belief, and every form of unbelief, which is outside the 
kingdom of Christ, exerts a narrowing tendency over the 
human soul, for it tells me that I alone am right, and that 
everyone else is wrong. But let a man once get his feet 
on the foundation, let him once stand on the all-transcend- 
ing truth of the Gospel, he will find it to be an all-com- 
prehending truth too. It will throw light upon everything ; 
it will cast a mantle of charity over all ; it will cover a 
multitude of sins ; it will make us see good in much that 
seemed hopeless evil. It will reveal stars in many a night 
that appeared without a ray. If you have reached the 
foundation, you have come to that charity which believeth 
all things, and hopeth all things, and endureth all things ; 
for you have entered into union with the source of Infinite 
Love, and you have looked upon the world with His light. 
Thine is the boundless compassion, and the world-wide 
sympathy, and the endless hope. Thine the gentleness 
that breaks not the bruised reed nor quenches the smoking 
flax. Thine the redemptive yearning to seek and to save 
that which is lost. You will go forth into the desert and 
gather flowers from its barren waste ; you will walk among 
the tares and pluck from the midst of them the seeds of 
future promise. When you have rested on the great 
foundation, " the wood and the hay and the stubble " shall 
alike be included in your love with " the silver and the 
gold and the precious stones." 

If this quotation illustrates the ground on which 
he reared his faith as " broad positive," the follow- 
ing will reveal the way in which he expounded his 
belief that the ideal of the Christian life must have 



128 MATHESON OF 1NNELLAN 



existed before the historical Christ, and that it is in 
the light of it all things are made plain. By the 
time he preached this sermon on the " Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world " (Rev. xiii. 8), he 
had ceased to write out his discourses in full, but 
the skeleton, although much briefer than usual, is 
sufficiently explicit : 

Idea is, Christ's death not an accident but part of a 
system. It also indicates that the system is one of love. 
Calvary older than Eden, and the plan for redemption 
precedes the fact of creation. Divine, like human father- 
hood, provides for the contingency of its children. As 
proof of this adduce the sacrificial harmony between the 
volumes of nature and grace. "The foundation of the 
world," that is, the work of God in creation, prefigures 
sacrifice. All things shine by passing into the life of 
others : the seed into the flower, the sun into nature, the 
sea into the reflection of the light. Each stage of human 
life expands by sacrifice of self-will. Show this in the 
child, the boy, the youth, etc. Exhibit then how Christ 
was " slain from the foundation of the world." Connect 
the text with the words, " Lo, I come, I delight to do Thy 
will." When the will is surrendered the work is practic- 
ally done. 

There was thus to Matheson not only a Divine 
purpose in the universe and in human life, but a 
purpose that was intelligible to the mind and ap- 
pealed to the heart. In the light of it, all things 
became new. The dark problems of existence, the 
calamities of life, the vicissitudes and trials, the 
sufferings and sorrows of mortal existence, yea, 
even death itself, yielded up their mystery to the 
Christian ideal. As seen through it, every effort 
of the human mind and spirit, and the searchings 



MATHESON OF 1NNELLAN 129 



and strivings of natural religion, were seen to be 
but developments and stages in the realisation of 
the world plan. The rise and fall of nations — in 
fact, the course of civilisation as a whole — but 
illustrated the truth which had now been revealed 
to him. The Christian religion itself, in one sense 
the goal, was in another the beginning. It revealed 
in full measure what had always been in the mind of 
the Eternal. Its broken creeds contained fractions 
of the truth, and in place of being anathema one 
to another they ought to regard each other with 
that charity which believeth all things. It was 
thus that Matheson could gather them all together. 
His intellectual and moral sympathy embraced 
each Church, and extended the hand to every 
form of Christian faith ; indeed, it could reach out 
to those religions that are regarded as natural, for 
he saw in them foreshadowings of those truths 
which were revealed when the times were ripe. 
He thus became the great reconciler of his age, 
and did for his own generation what Robertson 
of Brighton accomplished for his. Matheson's 
writings, which we are to study in the following 
chapter, will illustrate this more fully. 



9 



CHAPTER VI 
AUTHORSHIP 

For a studious man like Matheson no better place 
could have been found than Innellan. The con- 
gregational and parochial demands on his time 
were slight in the extreme. The membership of 
his church was never very large ; there was little 
poverty, and the occasions on which he had to 
officiate at funerals and marriages were few and 
far between. For eight or nine months in the 
year his duties consisted mainly in the preparation 
and delivery of the weekly sermon ; the remainder 
of his time was practically at his own disposal, 
and it must be admitted that he made the fullest 
and the best use of it. There was nothing that 
he enjoyed more than being read to, and he 
had, within easy distance, in Glasgow, the com- 
mand of a number of libraries, particularly the 
University Library, and I know from the register 
of readers at the time that he perused many of 
the volumes on philosophy, theology, and cognate 
subjects, that it contains. His secretary was con- 
tinually coming and going, exchanging a packet 



AUTHORSHIP 



131 



of books for a fresh supply, and generally catering 
for the mental appetite of his chief. 

It goes without saying that most of what was 
read was retained. Matheson's remarkable memory 
enabled him to keep a firm hold of almost every 
idea and fact that were once communicated to him. 
But he did not become a mere bookworm ; he had 
an extraordinary power of assimilation. Whatever 
appealed to his intellectual sympathy was appro- 
priated and, with any modification necessary, be- 
came part of his own original views. In addition, 
there was a method in his reading ; he was by 
nature and training a speculative theologian. The 
poet in him contributed to the fulfilment of his 
main purpose, which was to produce in speech or 
by writing a fresh and stimulating view of Divine 
truth. From his earliest years he aimed at author- 
ship. As a schoolboy his efforts were printed at 
the express desire of his class-fellows, and as a 
student one poem at least found its way to the 
press. 

Nor was he long at Innellan until he con- 
templated publication. The work, however, which 
he intended for the world was not the one that first 
appeared ; indeed, it never appeared in the form in 
which he wrote it. There are among his literary 
remains a series of articles, or chapters, which were 
no doubt intended for a volume. Including the 
introduction and conclusion they number fourteen, 
and would have made a very presentable book. 
They bear the general title of " Conquerors by 



132 



AUTHORSHIP 



Faith ; or the Gospel of the Old Testament," 
and he evidently intended to publish them with his 
own name, for on the title-page there is written, " By 
the Rev. George Matheson, M.A., B.D., Innellan." 
They deal with those Hebrew characters of whom 
a list is given in the eleventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews, beginning with Abel and 
ending with David. They bear signs of having 
been submitted to some friendly criticism, and if 
one can judge by the pencilled notes, the critic 
was none other than Dr. Macduff. Why they 
were never published I do not know. They 
would have been quite worthy of any young 
minister of the Church. But on the whole he was 
wisely guided, for he would have forestalled the 
publication, many years afterwards, of his remark- 
able volume on The Representative Men of the 
Bible. The subjects are mainly the same, the 
point of view not radically different. But one 
misses in the earlier series the touch of the master 
hand, and that knowledge of life and of character 
which can only come after much thought and with 
the years that bring the philosophic mind. It is 
rather striking that his first conceptions were those 
that were last worked out. His earliest volume 
may be said to have seen the light only after 
his death, for The Women of the Bible, just 
published, was but the completion of the idea that 
he formed at Innellan of issuing in book-form 
sketches of the characters of the Old and the New 
Testaments. He never left his first love, and there 



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is not a little satisfaction in the reflection that he 
was able to fulfil the dream of his youth before he 
died. 

The work which he did prepare and publish 
within six years of his settlement at Innellan was 
Aids to the Study of German Theology, It 
appeared in the autumn of 1874, anonymously. 
It is no exaggeration to say that it came to the 
English public of the day as a glad and wel- 
come surprise. There was in the mind of Britain 
at the time a strong and unreasoning prejudice 
against German theology. This, of course, was 
entirely owing to ignorance, or misrepresentation, 
of the subject. Most of what had been pub- 
lished in England during the first half of the 
nineteenth century on the speculative theories of 
our Teutonic neighbours was certainly not to their 
advantage. Our insular conceit made us impatient 
of anything that necessitated a reconsideration 
or recasting of our theological position, and the 
earlier writers on the subject, partly ignorant of 
the language, and certainly quite out of sympathy 
with the views which they tried to combat, pre- 
sented German theology in a most unfavourable 
light. 

All this necessarily created a reaction, and such 
writers as Pusey, Sir William Hamilton, Morell, 
and S chaff, in independent works, and the scholars 
who were employed to translate the German works 
that composed Clark's " Biblical Cabinet" and the 
* ■ Foreign Theological Library," did yeoman service 



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in breaking down this prejudice by well-informed 
criticism of what the misjudged authors had really 
said. By the time Matheson wrote, the works 
of De Wette, Tholuck, Neander, Rosenmiiller, 
Lisco, and Rohr, of Hengstenberg, Keil, Delitzsch, 
Bleek, Julius Miiller, Giesler, and Dorner had 
been translated ; and through the " Theological 
Translation Fund Library " a beginning had been 
made with a reproduction, in English dress, 
of the works of Baur, Ewald, Keim, and Haus- 
rath. 

Matheson made himself familiar with all the 
material in the English language that he could lay 
his hands on, and devoted himself to a keen and 
profound study of German theology. I have in 
my hands, as I write, a large notebook, which he 
used at the time, and it is full of extracts from, 
and reflections on, the works of Dorner, Miiller, 
Neander, Baur, Morell, Hutchison Stirling, etc. 
From these and other sources, partly original and 
partly translated, he gathered together and sys- 
tematised the views of the great German writers on 
theology — from the time of Kant downwards. One 
cannot study this notebook, which bears indisput- 
able traces of wide and careful reading, without 
seeing in it the germ of all the works that 
Matheson produced at Innellan. It bears traces of 
his mental struggle at the time, gives a history to 
the sympathetic reader of his spiritual combat with 
the Giant Despair, and shows how the creative, 
positive, and illuminating ideas of the great German 



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thinkers enabled him to lay hold afresh of his lost 
faith, and to body it forth in a new and living form. 
It is also evident that he had during these years, 
while patiently engaged in mastering the specula- 
tive theories of the new age, a steadfast purpose 
in view. The great names of Kant, Schleier- 
macher, Hegel, Schelling, Fichte, and Strauss, 
recur most frequently, and their views on the 
different problems in theology with which they 
deal are elaborated more or less in detail. It 
was during this time that Matheson gained a 
sure foothold, and became master of himself and 
the great themes with which he was afterwards to 
deal. 

There were three features of the new publica- 
tion which commended it to the religious public. 
These were its lucidity of style, its logical con- 
tinuity, and its constructive aim. Students of Ger- 
man theology had previously been debarred from 
a sympathetic apprehension of the subject by the 
linguistic jargon both of the writers and their 
translators. Even eager aspirants were repelled. 
Over the portals of this temple, as over those of 
the kingdom of heaven, were written the words : 
" Strait is the gate and narrow is the way, and 
few there be that find it." Matheson opened the 
barred door. He removed the inscription, and led 
into the new kingdom thousands who hitherto had 
stood patient but disheartened at the outer gate. 
The fact is he had made the subject his own. The 
iron had entered his soul, and he spoke because he 



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felt and saw. He was impatient of vagueness, and 
he could never speak or write without having first 
of all formed a clear conception of the subject in 
his own mind. Accordingly in his book there is a 
beginning, a middle, and an end. System follows 
system, philosopher succeeds philosopher, by what 
seems a necessary law of development ; and German 
theology, which before was to many English 
readers an inversion or contradiction of the laws 
of thought, is seen in Matheson's hands to be 
but the necessary historical evolution of ideas. 
The style, too, was found to be charming ; clear, 
light, limpid, carrying the mind along by its own 
sweet music, and satisfying the most exact literary 
taste. 

The greatest service, however, which Matheson 
rendered was his emphatic and convincing pre- 
sentation of German theology as a positive and 
constructive power, which in place of destroying 
belief in Christianity confirmed that belief to all 
doubting and thinking minds. This is the first 
note sounded by him. In his Introduction he deals 
with the subject of German Rationalism, and shows 
how it was an exotic plant. The German heart he 
declares to be believing, the German mind to be 
constructive ; and the late Professor Hastie, in his 
excellent Introduction to Lichtenberger's History 
of German Theology in the Nineteenth Century, 
while expressing admiration for Matheson's book 
as a whole, commends it in particular for the signal 
service which it rendered at the time to the true 



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conception of German theology as a creative 
science. 

The immediate cause of this work's inception 
was a conversation between him and his friend Dr. 
David Sime. The doctor, like others who were 
in the habit of hearing Matheson preach, felt that 
it was a pity that so much wealth of thought and 
beauty of style should be confined to the limited 
circle of his congregation at Innellan, and Sime 
one evening besought him to gather a choice few 
of the expositions of Scripture passages which he 
was in the habit of giving, and to publish them ; or, 
failing this, to write out his own lucid account of 
the German Philosophies and Theologies ; or, still 
better, to do both. " No man," urged Sime, 
4 'should keep to himself, or for his own set, his 
celestial, any more than his terrestrial work. It 
assuredly would not do for a heavenly flower to 
waste its perfume on the desert air." "Of course 
not," said Matheson, "but no good or beautiful 
thing is wasted. However, I shall think still more 
on what you suggest ; I think that I will write, and 
that I have something to say." The immediate spur 
to his resolution came a short time afterwards, when 
Mr. James Sime, the well-known man of letters, 
happened to be on a visit to his brother. He 
was at that time engaged in gathering materials 
for his Life of Lessing, and the doctor having 
invited Matheson to meet him, the trio so stimul- 
ated each other's minds that, in a short time, 
all of them became authors. " Some time, prob- 



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ably months after this evening," remarks the 
doctor, 

in one of my now regular, and expected, visits to the Manse, 
I found my friend rapidly pacing backwards and forwards 
through the library, and with unusual strength and deter- 
mination in his usually mirthful and cheerful face. He 
received me with new enthusiasm, and if possible with 
more affection than ever. " I have made up my mind," 
he said ; " you have broken my rock-like silence — it should 
have been broken long ago. I am going to write a small 
work on German Theology, aids to the great German 
conceptions, and also to prepare for the press some of the 
expository work to which you have so pressingly alluded. 
In point of fact, this morning I have finished the first three 
or four sheets of a small work that I am to call Aids to 
the Study of German Theology. Are you not glad ? Of 
course you are, but whist ! not a word about it." 

The book appeared in the autumn of 1874, and 
so cordial was its reception that within two years 
it was in its third edition. The second edition 
appeared with the authors name on the title- 
page. The reviews were most encouraging. The 
Scotsman, for example, devoted a whole column to 
it, and this for a small book, and evidently the 
first, by an unknown author, was quite unusual, and 
was a proof of the impression the work had made 
on the reviewer's mind. It was impossible for the 
writer to preserve his anonymity. In a short time 
letters poured in upon him from leading men in the 
Church, full of the heartiest congratulations and 
encouragement. One of the first was from his old 
friend Dr. Macduff ; and among others who wrote 
to him were Dr. M'Culloch, Dr. Hugh Macmillan, 
Dr. Jamieson of Glasgow, Professor Charteris, and 



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Dr. John Alison. The most valued commenda- 
tion, seeing it was from a man who was particularly- 
versed in the subject, was from Dr. Gloag of 
Galashiels : 

Manse of Galashiels, 
December 21, 1874. 

My DEAR Sir, — I have been informed that you are 
the author of the work entitled Aids to the Study of 
German Theology^ and I cannot refrain from writing to 
thank you for your excellent work. Its erudition is 
extensive, but it is especially marvellous when it is 
remembered that the author had to encounter great 
obstacles from defectiveness of vision. I cannot under- 
stand how you have amassed such knowledge of German 
Theology. Although I have been studying it for nearly 
twenty years, yet I must yield the palm to you. I do not 
pretend to criticise your work, which is in all respects 
admirable ; written in a candid spirit, and exhibiting great 
judgment in weighing the different opinions. The distinc- 
tion you draw between the Theology of Baur and Strauss 
was to me peculiarly interesting. I cannot enter into 
your appreciation of Hegel. To me his philosophy rests 
on no solid basis, and is merely an ingenious theory, 
without any ground of truth ; and I must confess that the 
Left Hegelians carried it to its legitimate conclusions. I 
was surprised at the statement that Ewald believed in the 
resurrection of Jesus as an historical fact. I thought that 
I had met with a distinct denial of it in one of his writings, 
though I cannot tell where. Nor did I know that Whitby 
was an Arian. His Commentary on John appears to be 
strictly orthodox. I am also such a theologian of the old 
school that I cannot agree with those who deprecate the 
reasoning of Paley. To me it is as convincing, in oppo- 
sition to the modern forms of infidelity, as it was in 
opposition to the Deists. 

Again thanking you for your excellent work, and 
hoping that it will be only an instalment and a prelude to 
still greater works in theology — Believe me, yours truly, 

Paton J. Gloag. 



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Matheson being now launched on the ocean of 
authorship, book after book, and article after article, 
followed each other in quick succession ; and the 
remarkable feature about them all is that none 
bear traces of slipshod or careless work. The 
thought, the style, and the finish of each is as 
perfect as he could make them. Nor did his 
writing interfere with his preaching ; in fact it 
seemed to help it. With every Sunday came a 
new sermon, and as the years rolled on his 
discourses grew in power. Their spiritual insight, 
richness of thought, and wealth of illustration 
increased with his deepening experience. Three 
years after the publication of The Aids appeared 
his second and his most ambitious book, The 
Growth of the Spirit of Christianity. It was in 
two volumes, and attracted considerable attention. 
It was an application of the principles of Hegel to 
the Christian Church ; in short, it was a philosophy 
of the history of the Church from " the Dawn of 
the Christian Era to the Reformation." 

The book, even after the lapse of thirty years, 
impresses one by its power. It is full of brilliant 
passages, and bristles with pointed epigrams. It is 
bold without being arrogant, and faces the most 
difficult facts with a courage that is chivalrous in 
the extreme. Its knowledge of the events, the 
movements, and the characters of that long period 
is most striking ; and flash after flash of illuminating 
light is poured upon passages and incidents which 
make the whole period live. The author sees in 



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the history of the world, preceding the dawn of 
Christianity, a preparation for the advent of Christ. 
The Pagan religions, as well as Judaism, serve their 
purpose in paving the way for Him who was to be 
the Light of the World. Christianity after its birth 
enters on its infancy. It then passes through its 
youth to its schooldays, and is subjected to the 
training, struggles, and discipline which such an 
experience involves. Only after it has gone 
through these necessary stages of development 
does it reach its full expansion and expression in 
the Reformation. 

Such, in brief outline, is the plan and char- 
acter of the book. It presents Christianity as 
a spiritual force, subject to the law of evolution, 
and gradually unfolding its inner purpose as the 
ages roll by. The leading journals, both in 
England and Scotland, recognised at once the 
importance and the significance of the new work, 
and it won from The Spectator a lengthened and 
favourable review. The organs of the English 
Church, especially of the High Church party, 
pointed out what they conceived to be its defects. 
It was easy, of course, for anyone to question 
the relation of all the facts to the theory by which 
the author strove to interpret them. In the 
opinion of not a few the facts were distorted to 
suit the theory. No one will be eager to dispute 
the fairness of this criticism ; it is one that is con- 
stantly levelled against Hegel himself. But it is 
better surely to see facts in the light of some 



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illuminating principle than to regard them as so 
many unintelligible obstacles in the path of a true 
appreciation of the course of history. The main 
objection to the book, however, on the part of such 
critics, was that it was a vindication of Protestant- 
ism, a glorification of the individual at the expense 
of the Church. Matheson would regard such 
criticism as a compliment, for he held 

that individualism was the reforming centre of even 
collectivism ; the reformation of the latter being from the 
unit to the multitude, not from the multitude to the unit, 
from within outwards rather than from without inwards. 
No Act of Parliament would make a drunkard a sober 
man, or a grasping money-lender or sensualist into a large- 
souled being. How often was the solitary individual 
the starting-point of originality, and the glowing centre 
of a life and light that raise all life, possibly for genera- 
tions. The eternal importance of the individual fascinated 
him. To lose one's life in order to find it was emphatic- 
ally true of one's own work and pre-eminently true of the 
works of great genius. 

Notwithstanding the ability, learning, and fascina- 
tion of this book, it never passed beyond a first 
edition. It is difficult to account for this. With 
all its defects it was a powerful and important 
contribution to the subject treated. Its weakness 
perhaps consisted in its aim, for while it may be 
possible to apply the Hegelian principle to the 
outstanding periods in the history of the world or 
of the Church, it is difficult, to say the least, to see 
this principle verified in every movement, incident, 
and detail, in the growth of the Christian religion, 
during the first sixteen centuries of its existence. 



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Matheson on more than one occasion expressed a 
desire to rewrite the work. He evidently believed 
in the purpose which he had in mind when com- 
posing it. No subject attracted him more than the 
history of thought, nor was there any other theme 
on which his insight and suggestiveness could find 
a better field for their employment. 

It was now that Matheson began his numerous 
contributions to the religious and theological 
magazines of the day. He had previous to this 
endeavoured to find entrance to several of them, 
but without success. Article after article, he used 
to say, was rejected by the "able editors"; but 
once he had made a name for himself, his con- 
tributions were solicited by these same editors, who 
were glad to receive and publish the very articles 
which they had previously declined. So much for 
editorial insight and judgment. The very first 
article that appeared from his pen was perhaps the 
best he ever wrote. It was on the " Originality 
of the Character of Christ," and was published in 
The Contemporary Review of November 1878. 

I have a distinct recollection of an interesting 
incident in connection with this article. Sparsely 
populated as Innellan was, it was never, in 
Matheson's time at least, without one or two men 
of intellectual ability. They naturally gravitated 
to the Manse, and received fresh stimulus from the 
young minister who was so mentally alive. With 
them he used to discuss current theological and 
philosophical topics, and they took a deep personal 



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interest in his literary aspirations and ventures. 
Even at that early date he was beginning to gather 
round him a sympathetic band whose minds he 
imbued with his own spirit. One late September, 
or early October, morning in the year 1878, I 
chanced to be standing on Innellan pier, waiting 
the arrival of some steamer, when my eye rested 
on an animated group, centred round a close friend 
of Matheson's, who was holding in his hand a sheaf 
of printed slips, which at the time seemed very 
unfamiliar to me, but which afterwards became only 
too well known as printers' proof sheets. This 
young Mathesonian was holding forth at consider- 
able length in an animated, and almost excited, 
manner to the group that had gathered round him, 
and on drawing near I discovered that what he 
held in his hand were the proofs of the article by 
Matheson that was to appear the following month 
in The Contemporary Review. What strikes one in 
reflecting upon this incident is the deep interest 
which these villagers took in the growing reputa- 
tion of their minister. They were beginning to be 
extremely proud of him, and though only a few could 
have understood the importance, to a young author, 
of having an article 'accepted by so influential a 
magazine, they caught the spirit of the occasion 
and responded with hearty sympathy to the out- 
pourings of Matheson's friend, who was expounding 
to them the great honour that had befallen their 
minister. On reading anew the article, which has 
now been in print for well-nigh thirty years, one 



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feels that whatever honour may have accrued to the 
author, an equal honour at least befell the magazine 
which was fortunate enough to secure it. So deep 
an impression did it make that, shortly after its 
appearance, it was translated into French. 

In the following year he formed a connection 
with The Expositor that was to last till his death. 
It was the magazine to which he contributed the 
greatest number of articles. Between him and 
its editor there was the closest intellectual sympathy. 
Samuel Cox, who at that time had charge of the 
magazine, was a prince of expositors — scholarly, 
broad-minded, original, and suggestive ; and he 
gathered round him a band of writers who made 
the journal favourably known, not only in Britain 
but in America and the Colonies. It was only in 
its fifth year when Dr. Matheson joined it, and he 
continued his connection under the present editor, 
Dr. Robertson Nicoll. Even after he had, for the 
most part, ceased to contribute to current literature, 
he could not withstand the attractions of The 
Expository and some of his latest writings appeared 
in its pages. The article by which he introduced 
himself to its readers was on " Science and the 
Christian Idea of Prayer," and in its own line it 
was quite equal to the one that had appeared, two 
months previously, in The Contemporary Review. 
Indeed Matheson never surpassed, in any of his 
subsequent writings, whether in magazine or in 
book-form, these early contributions. Nothing 
finer of their kind had appeared from the pen of a 



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Scottish minister. Their originality, convincing 
argument, scholarship, easy mastery of philosophic 
and scientific thought ; their suggestiveness, high 
spiritual tone, and literary finish, mark them out as 
among the best specimens of magazine writing that 
the age produced. 

This was the year in which the first distinctive 
honour was bestowed on Matheson. At the spring 
graduation of 1879, the University of Edinburgh 
conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of 
Divinity. It might be thought that his own 
University should have been the first to recognise 
him, but he was still young ; he was just in his 
thirty-seventh year, and he had been a parish 
minister for eleven years only. Think, however, 
of his record ! He was one of the most dis- 
tinguished students of his time, as a preacher he 
was already in the first rank, and as an author he 
had proved his quality. In addition to all this, there 
was the sad fact that he was blind. No one of his 
standing among his contemporaries, and with all 
their faculties unimpaired, had in the field of oratory 
or of authorship attained to anything like his dis- 
tinction ; and yet in spite of a calamity terrible for 
most men to contemplate, let alone to endure, he 
had achieved a reputation which was fast spreading 
over the length and breadth of the land. As for 
Matheson, the fact of a University which was not 
his own Alma Mater, stepping in at this early date 
to recognise him, was a double honour. Upon the 
University of Edinburgh he had no claims, except 



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that of intellectual ability and the accomplishment 
of great achievements. It was these that were 
recognised by his degree. 

It must have been singularly gratifying to 
Matheson that one of the men who were capped 
along with him on the occasion was the scholarly 
and saintly Dr. Hugh Macmillan of Greenock. 
Dr. Macmillan was an early friend of Matheson's. 
He was among the first to recognise his genius, 
and to give him every assistance and encourage- 
ment in his literary pursuits. Professor Charteris, 
in presenting Matheson to the Chancellor (Lord 
President Inglis), said : 

I have also the honour to introduce the Rev. George 
Matheson, B.D., Minister of the Parish of Innellan. My 
Lord, Mr. Matheson, though young in years, and though 
he has had to struggle against a physical disadvantage, 
which would have been to most men ample reason for 
his enjoying a life of ease rather than of labour, has 
already won for himself a high place on the roll of 
scholars and divines. His first book, Aids to the Study 
of German Theology \ is a remarkable proof of his power 
to present an accurate and interesting, and even lively, 
picture of the work of every German theologian and 
critic of distinction, and students have welcomed it. 
His next book, entitled The Growth of the Spirit of 
Christianity, passes with a scholar's sure step and a poet's 
eye, and the graceful ease of thorough culture, over the 
whole wide field of Christian history, showing the 
increasing power which runs through all the ages, and 
leading to much thought on the unequalled opportunities 
which are in the power of the Church of our own day. He 
is also the author of several well-known papers, one of 
which, in The Contemporary Review, on the " Originality of 
the Character of Christ," may be specially mentioned. 
It is not only, as in some sort, a crown for the past, but 



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as an encouragement to other labours, that the Senatus 
Academicus asks your Lordship to confer on Mr. Matheson 
the degree of Doctor of Divinity, which he has already 
won so well. 

Dr. Matheson received, in the following year, a 
unanimous call to succeed Dr. Cumming at Crown 
Court Church, London. It is said that one reason 
for his declining this call was the failure on the 
part of the managers to accept the condition that 
he should be permitted to exchange freely with the 
other Presbyterian and Nonconforming ministers 
in London. Whatever truth there may be in this, 
it points to a fact which cannot be gainsaid. There 
was no exclusiveness in Matheson's ecclesiastical 
views or leanings. His sympathies were sufficiently 
broad to include all the Creeds and Communions 
of Christendom. His work on The Growth of 
the Spirit of Christianity showed that he regarded 
every step in the history of the Church, every 
fresh departure and secession, as a manifestation 
of progress, a reaching forward to a fuller realisation 
of absolute truth. So keen was his appreciation of 
other Churches, and even of heathen religions, that 
on one occasion, when advocating in private, and 
with extraordinary force and eloquence, the cause 
of foreign missions, he so impressed his hearers 
with his fitness for the task that they urged him to 
go himself. They felt that he, by his intellectual 
presentation of Christian truth to the Hindu mind, 
would do more to convert the natives of India to 
the Christian religion than the ordinary missionary, 



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who depended on weapons that were outworn and 

effete. " I go ! " he said, and paused. " No, I 

dare not go. I am afraid I would be converted to 
Brahminism." 

There can be no doubt, however, that other 
reasons weighed with him in declining the call to 
London. It would have been a wrench to break, 
even in a modified form, his connection with the 
Church of Scotland, and the difficulties and un- 
certainties of the situation could not be denied. 
All the same, he had really nothing to fear. He 
could, in London, have lived the life of the student, 
and he would certainly have gathered round him a 
congregation in full sympathy with his views. In 
a very short time his preaching would have been 
one of the attractions of the capital, and the 
strangers and foreigners who crowd into it would 
of themselves have filled his church. The more 
likely condition insisted on by him would be, that 
he should be freed from all parochial and congrega- 
tional work, so that his full strength might be 
given to preaching. Presbyterianism, unfortunately, 
has not even yet risen to this height, and he showed 
wisdom in choosing to remain, for the time being, 
in Innellan. 

He now began to write regularly for the press. 
During the next six years, until the time that he 
was called to St. Bernard's, he wrote some fifty 
articles to the more important theological magazines 
of the day. To The Expositor alone he contributed 
within that period twenty-five articles. Among 



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them was the series on 4 'The Historical Christ of 
St. Paul," another on the " Minor Prophets," 
and a third on " Scripture Studies of the Heavenly 
State." Single articles by him appeared on such 
subjects as "The Paradox of Christian Ethics," 
"Christianity and Judaism," "Christianity's First 
Invitation to the World," "The Outer and the 
Inner Glory," "The Hundred and Thirty-Ninth 
Psalm," and " Spiritual Sacrifices." He also wrote a 
series of three articles to The Catholic Presbyterian 
on " German Theologians of the Day," and another 
on "The Judaic Vision of the Happy Kingdom." 
His article on "The Basis of Religious Belief" 
appeared in The British and Foreign Evangelical 
Review. He wrote in The British Quarterly 
Review on "The Christian Idea of God," in The 
Princeton Review on "Christ and the Doctrine of 
Immortality," in The Modern Review on "The 
Religious Forces of the Reformation Era," and in 
The Homiletic Magazine on " Evolution in Relation 
to Miracle." Nine articles by him appeared between 
November 1884 and June 1886 in The Monthly 
Interpreter. They were on "Christ's Exaltation 
in the Epistle to the Hebrews," " The Continuity 
of the Sermon on the Mount," " The Three 
Christian Sympathies," "The Empire of Christ," 
"Christ's Defence of his Parabolic Teaching," 
" Christ's Glorifying Work," " The Order of Christ's 
Revelation," " Exaltation of Christ in the Epistle 
to the Philippians," and "The Promise of Revela- 
tion." 



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Two things strike one forcibly on reading this 
long series of articles. The one is Matheson's 
amazing intellectual fertility, and the other is the 
rare quality of the work which he produced. In 
reflecting on the former it should not be forgotten 
that these were but chips from his workshop. He 
was all the time engaged on books that demanded 
research and thought, and preaching sermons of 
the first order, the delivery of which alone must 
have been a great strain on his nervous energy. 
The last ten years of his residence at Innellan 
were, from a literary point of view, the most pro- 
ductive and important in his whole life. He 
experienced during that period a quickening of 
his mental nature which it is hard to parallel. Dr. 
Sime, who saw much of him during these years, 
bears witness to his extraordinary activity, and 
also to the method which utilised every hour of the 
day. It was this combination which enabled him 
to accomplish what he did. " He talked rapidly," 
says the doctor, " walked rapidly, thought rapidly, 
worked rapidly ; but his work was methodical in 
the extreme. Every hour of the day had its 
allotted kind and amount of work, which was 
never by fits and starts, or by sudden impulses and 
inspirations. A more ready man of thought, for 
his mind was ever full, I have not ever met." 
Continuing, he remarks : 

At certain arranged hours he read the newspapers 
or the monthlies, or general literature, or works of science, 
philosophy, and theology ; or paced about the library 



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alone, for an hour, thinking ; or dictated to his amanuensis 
an expository gem of thought for the Sunday. As 
revealing his systematic method of work, it may be 
mentioned that whilst dictating, in full fervour and force, 
he would abruptly cease for the day when the time devoted 
for such workmanship had elapsed ; sometimes in the 
middle of a sentence, often in the middle of a paragraph. 
Then on the next morning, on returning to the theme, 
he had the last two or three sheets carefully read over, 
and resumed the dictation, his whole soul in the work, 
fresh and animated as before. The same would occur 
on studying the most fascinating poem, or fiction, or 
piece of criticism ; such as Macaulay's, Carlyle's, Pro- 
fessor Max Miiller's, or Huxley's ; not less than the most 
abstract German metaphysics and theology, or the most 
technical of scientific treatises. On coming back the next 
day to the study of the work on hand, here likewise a page 
or two would be re-read, and in full intensity and with 
fresh power the interest in the work would be renewed. 
Never did he allow himself to be fatigued, hence the 
amount and the variety of work he was capable of, for 
he was always at his best in reception and in creation. 
Again, at a certain hour each day he would go out with 
his private secretary or devoted sister to visit his par- 
ishioners, and even these with methodical preparation. 
He had his meals every day at the same time ; at the 
same hour every night he went to bed ; and at the same 
hour every morning he rose, jocund as the morn, for the 
work of the day, maintaining a regular, normal, harmonious 
life from day to day. 

The most important of the articles which he 
published at this time are apologetic in their nature. 
His great aim was to commend Christianity to the 
times, to show that modern science and criticism 
had in no way impaired, much less destroyed, its 
foundations ; but that, on the contrary, every fresh 
discovery in the world of mind or of matter, or in 



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the field of history, simply revealed its inherent 
wealth, its boundless resources, and its eternal 
adaptability to the needs of man. This is Chris- 
tian Theism, and, having grasped the central truth, 
Matheson was the very man to commend Chris- 
tianity to the inquiring and thoughtful minds of 
the age. His method was historical, broad, and 
sympathetic. He had for years been engaged in 
a profound study of natural religion. The religions 
of the ancient world, in particular, attracted him. 
He was also familiar with the different systems of 
doctrine that had sprung out of Christianity itself, 
and with the various currents of unbelief and 
rationalism that had appeared during the Christian 
era. He had made a very special study of English 
Deism, and of the apologetic works associated with 
the names of Butler and of Paley. Above all, he 
had steeped his mind so thoroughly in the specu- 
lative theories of the great German thinkers on 
religion, from the time of Kant, and with the works 
of the theologians inspired by them, that he could 
move with ease and freedom in the world of modern 
thought, and apply his own fundamental principles 
to existing conditions. These conditions were 
beginning to be radically affected by the spirit of 
science, and he bent himself with his whole force 
to master the principles which underlay that spirit. 
Especially did he make himself thoroughly con- 
versant with the works of its great exponent and 
interpreter, Herbert Spencer, and in a book which 
he was to publish before leaving Innellan, and which, 



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to my thinking, is perhaps his greatest work, he 
produced an " Apology of the Christian Religion" 
against the attacks made upon it by that agnosticism 
which was the offspring of modern science. It will 
serve our purpose to select two or three of the 
more important articles, looked at from this point 
of view, and briefly state the thought that inspired 
them. 

The problem which he had to face in his article 
on the "Originality of the Character of Christ" was 
the one raised by Baur and Strauss. In other 
words, he had to show that behind the Gospels, 
and behind the history from which they were 
supposed to have sprung, there was an element 
which had to be accounted for, and that was the 
ideal which was embodied in the historical Christ. 
Grant that the Gospels were the result of the 
conflict between the Petrine and Pauline schools of 
thought which arose in the Apostolic Church, and 
concede the contention that the ground of that 
conflict was the offspring of mere myth, there still 
remained the Christian ideal which neither the one 
theory nor the other could explain. Matheson then 
proceeds to give an historical sketch of the different 
conceptions of the ideal man which had animated 
the ancient world. He reviews in turn the Jewish, 
Platonic, Greek, and Roman ideals, and he finds 
that one and all of them come short of the Christ 
of history. He has no difficulty in showing that the 
natural mind, as represented in the searchings of 
the ancient world after the highest type of manhood, 



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has come woefully short of the Christ of the Gospels, 
and he is driven to the conclusion that the explana- 
tion can be sought in one direction only, in the fresh 
revelation which was imparted to the world in the 
Incarnate Word. " If," he concludes, 

we find Judea reaping where she has not sown, and 
gathering where she has not strawed ; if we see her the 
birthplace of an idea which surpassed her power of 
origination, and when originated surpassed her power of 
comprehension ; if in her contact with the Gentile nations 
we fail to discover any germs from which that idea could 
have naturally sprung; if we find it in essence and in 
portraiture directly at variance with all heathen aspira- 
tions, reversing the world's ideal of physical strength, 
transforming its estimate of mental power, casting into the 
shade its conception of aesthetic culture, and placing on a 
contrary basis its hope of a theocratic power ; if we find it 
introducing a new standard of heroism which caused every 
valley to be exalted, and every mountain to be made low ; 
and if, above all, we perceive that when that standard of 
heroism rose upon the world, it rose upon a foreign soil 
which received it as an alien and an adversary, are we not 
driven to ask if, even on the lowest computation, we have 
not reached the evidence of a new life in humanity, the 
outpouring of a fresh vitality and the manifestation of a 
higher power ? 

In his article on " Science and the Christian 
Idea of Prayer," he tries to find a place for the 
believing heart in the new world of inviolable forces 
which the modern world was fast girding round it. 
Science contended that nature is immutable, that its 
laws are unknown, and the idea of Christian prayer 
that was current at the time seemed to contradict 
both these positions. Matheson, on the other hand, 
declares that Christianity really admits them, and 



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that thus far both it and science are at one. There 
is a common ground on which both can meet, and 
that is the belief that the veil may be lifted, that the 
Creator and creation are in communion, or, as he 
puts it: * ' According to the modern doctrine of 
forces there is one inscrutable and ultimate Force 
which is everywhere present and everywhere 
persistent, and in which all other forms and forces 
live and move and have their being. The universe 
is but its manifestation, the laws of the universe are 
but its expression. Christianity employs a different 
terminology, but it asks no more. It only desires 
the possibility of some communication from the 
infinite to the finite. Like science it perceives an 
immutable nature, like science it recognises its 
ignorance of that nature, and like science it fore- 
casts the hope that the law which is unknown will 
in some way manifest its presence." Here, then, is 
a sphere in which Christian prayer can exercise 
itself. Its great desire is that the will of God 
should be revealed so that the heart of the 
petitioner may know and be in sympathy with it, 
and that the life of the believer may be in con- 
formity with its behests. It is this which differen- 
tiates the Christian from the Pagan idea of prayer. 
The Pagan knows of nothing save individual desires, 
the Christian of nothing save the desires of God, 
and so he concludes : 

Paganism had questioned what it should eat and what 
it should drink, and wherewithal it should be clothed ; 
Christianity perceived that none of these things consti- 



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tuted the essence of human need. Paganism desired the 
gratification of the individual life; Christianity started 
with the definite assumption that the only ultimate 
gratification which that life could find was to cease from 
its own self-seeking, and desire the universal good. 
Christian prayer has become the antithesis of heathen 
supplication; and it has reached this antithesis by entering 
into union with that scientific life of Nature where the 
interest of the one is the interest of the many, and where 
the liberty of the individual is the service of the highest 
law. 

v If there was one subject more than another in 
which Matheson was deeply interested it was 
Immortality. It is the theme of his earliest and 
of his latest writings. There is hardly a book or 
an article written by him in which there is not 
some reference to it. It was with him a subject of 
perennial interest. Nor was there any question to 
which he had given a more definite answer. He 
had no doubt concerning it. He believed as 
strongly in the immortality of the soul as he did in 
his own personality. Some may think that the 
reason of his absorbing interest in this subject was 
the fact of his being blind. It was natural that he 
should look forward to another world in which the 
film would be taken from his eyes and he could see 
the " King in His beauty." Matheson had formed 
to himself a very vivid conception of what the 
Hereafter was to be like. He had created a 
"new heaven and a new earth," and in moments 
of frank communication he gave his friends a 
glimpse of what he himself saw ; but his hope of 
immortality arose from another cause. As a 



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spiritually minded man, as a Christian theologian, 
as one who had pondered the problems which face 
all serious men, he felt that there could be no 
escape from a belief in this great doctrine. The 
very idea of God made it necessary to his think- 
ing, and the Christian religion would fall to pieces 
were the doctrine of immortality to be blotted 
out. 

In two articles which he wrote at this time, the 
one in The Expositor and the other in The Princeton 
Review, he deals with both sides of the subject : the 
future life of the soul, and the future condition of 
the body. It is in the light of Christ's life, death, 
and resurrection that he views it ; and he contends 
that the believer who is mystically united to Christ, 
who is a member of His Divine body, is bound to 
be a sharer in that life which Christ brought to 
light, i The power of Christ in the believing soul 
will make it eternal, and the glorified body of Christ 
will also be shared in by the Christian. Apart from 
Christ, Matheson does not discuss the question. 
What immortality there may be for those outside 
the pale of Christianity he does not in these two 
articles pretend to consider. As a Christian theo- 
logian he confines himself to the subject which his 
vocation naturally called him to ponder. To most 
minds the question of the soul's " transition garment," 
as Matheson calls the resurrection body, will be of 
more interest than the question of the soul's future 
life ; for the latter is tacitly accepted, while with 
regard to the former not a few are in doubt. 



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Matheson's views on this subject then are worth 
considering. He says : 

We believe the pervading thought of the New Testament 
to be that the resurrection body of Christ forms the germ 
or nucleus out of which is to spring the transition 
garment of the believing soul. Let the student of the 
Gospels and the Pauline epistles approach their study 
with such a thought in his mind, and he will be struck 
with the marvellous concentration of all other points 
around it. He will find a new significance in that grain 
of mustard-seed which, though buried, rises up into a 
mighty tree and branches forth into the dwellings of the 
homeless. He will see a fresh meaning in those elements 
of communion which are professedly the symbols of 
Christ's earthly body — the body broken in death, but dis- 
tributed in resurrection. He will read in another light 
those narratives in which the Messiah conquers death, and 
measure by a new standard the " power of His resurrec- 
tion." He will ask, not without intelligence, if when 
Christ spoke of the Father's house with many mansions — 
the house which His own resurrection was to prepare — He 
meant anything less than that human body which had 
been the scene of the Incarnation ? He will ask yet again, 
and with still deepening conviction, if when Paul spoke of 
" the building of God, the house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens," he meant anything less than that 
same Father's house which the evangelist had beheld in 
the form of Jesus ? He will inquire if Paul had any mean- 
ing when he said that Christians were "members of 
Christ's body," that they were crucified together with 
Christ, that they were " buried with Him by baptism into 
His death," that they were already " risen with Him," and 
" made to sit together with Him in heavenly places," that 
the Christian dead "slept in Him," and that Heat His 
coming would " bring them with Him " ; above all, that 
their rising was so bound up in His resurrection, that if 
there were no resurrection of the dead, then Christ Him- 
self was not risen ; but that, if He were risen, they had al- 
ready their " conversation in heaven." These are startling 



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statements, but they are marvellously consistent with one 
fundamental thought ; they point, in our view, unmistak- 
ably to the belief that when the soul is clothed upon with 
the house which is from heaven, it is clothed upon with the 
resurrection body of the Son of Man. The effect of such 
a belief was to abolish death. The soul no longer needed 
to linger in an impersonal sleep, awaiting the consumma- 
tion of all things. ;/ c He that believeth on Me shall never 
die," was the last word on the subject of immortality. 

The most striking thought in his article on the 
" Christian Idea of God " is one which he elaborates 
more fully in his Baird Lecture. It is his view 
of revelation. " Revelation," he says, " signifies 
the drawing back of a veil. Supernaturalism 
worships the veil and would perish by its with- 
drawal. Rationalism has no veil to withdraw. 
Revelation is the middle form between super- 
naturalism and rationalism." Matheson held that 
revelation was impossible except on the belief that 
there is something in common between the Divine 
and the human, between God and man. Unless 
man had in him something akin to God he would 
be unable to understand Gods manifestation of 
Himself ; and unless there was in God something 
akin to man, God would be unable to hold com- 
munion with the creature. Hence in the Incarna- 
tion, God manifest in the flesh, Matheson finds the 
Christian idea both of God and of man. In the 
article on the " Basis of Religious Belief," he enters 
on a very fine discussion of the different grounds 
for this belief as held by various schools of thought, 
both without and within the Christian Church. As 



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is customary with him, he treats the subject 
historically, he shows how each basis when it proved 
untenable gave birth to a new one, until at last the 
theory of Schleiermacher is reached, which is only 
the Christian conception of Faith in another form ; 
that "the sense of absolute dependence" is the 
real basis of religious belief. To feel our limitation 
is to take the first step towards a conception of the 
infinite. " Faith," he remarks, "is essentially a 
Christian term. It differs from religious belief in 
general, as the species differs from the genus. 
Belief is the recognition of a Divine principle, 
faith is the recognition of a Divine principle which 
bears to us a moral relation. The peculiarity of 
faith as a religious phenomenon, in other words the 
peculiarity of Christianity as a system of belief, 
consists in this, that it imports into the idea of God 
an element of moral rectitude with which we as 
worshippers have specially to do. Nevertheless 
the basis of Christian faith is, by its own admission, 
precisely the same as the basis of religious belief in 
general, the sense of absolute dependence." 

These articles, dealing with some of the most 
important subjects in theology, and handled by 
Dr. Matheson in an earnest and scholarly manner, 
however valuable in themselves, were but a prepara- 
tion for his next book, published in 1881, under 
the title of the Natural Elements of Revealed 
Theology. This was the Baird Lecture for that 
year. It was a distinct honour to be appointed to 
this Foundation, especially at so early a period in 



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life. He was only in his thirty-ninth year, and 
with a single exception this lectureship has all 
along been given to men who at the time of their 
appointment were, to say the least, beyond the 
meridian of life. It has always been regarded 
partly as a reward for lengthened services to the 
Church and to theological literature, and partly as 
an opportunity for men of ripe scholarship to give 
their matured views to the world. The other 
exception referred to was Professor Flint. He, like 
Matheson, was Baird Lecturer at a comparatively 
early age, and it is remarkable that the lectures of 
these two are regarded on all hands as among the 
best that have been delivered on this Foundation. 
Some may see in this an argument for the appoint- 
ment of young men, but it ought to be remembered 
that every youthful theologian is not a Flint or a 
Matheson. 

The lecturer's design was to ascertain to what 
extent the doctrines of revealed religion have a 
basis in the natural instincts of the human mind. 
In the introductory chapter he discusses at length 
the main thought of his article on the " Christian 
Idea of God," namely, the nature and possibility of 
revelation. Elaborating the idea which we have 
already seen to lie at the basis of his views on the 
subject, that revelation simply means the " drawing 
back of a veil," he remarks : " The act of drawing 
back the veil is the supernatural part of the process. 
It is too high to be touched by the human hand, 
and therefore its removal demands the agency of 



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another Hand. Yet no sooner is the veil withdrawn 
than the mystery vanishes. The human spirit recog- 
nises the vision not as a new vision, but as that for 
which unconsciously it has been waiting all along. 
It bounds to meet it as the normal fulfilment of its 
destiny." 

This conception of revelation will be generally 
accepted as sound and satisfactory, and the attitude 
taken up towards natural religion, just keeps the 
mean between too sombre and too flattering 
a view of the latter. Christianity is not a mere 
collection of mysteries standing in no relation to 
human reason or experience, and incapable of 
commending itself to the human heart as the 
solution of its problems and the satisfaction of 
its needs and desires. It is the complement of 
human nature, it gives to nature the very thing 
she needed, it satisfies the instincts manifested in 
ethnic or natural religion. 

In setting himself to prove this thesis, Dr. 
Matheson first of all endeavours to ascertain what 
the instincts and aspirations of natural religion are. 
He seeks for these in the religions which prevailed 
before the advent of Christ, and in them he dis- 
covers three great problems, namely, What is God ? 
What is His relation to humanity? Is His Glory 
consistent with the existence of moral evil ? The 
solution of the first he finds in the Christian 
doctrine of the Trinity ; of the second in the tenet 
of the Incarnation ; and of the third in the faith in 
the Atonement. Dr. Matheson works out these 



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ideas with great originality, eloquence, and skill. 
The book was welcomed by the public as a glad 
surprise. It was felt to be a new departure in 
Scottish theology, and was hailed as significant 
of a broadening of religious thought. Dr. Robert- 
son Nicoll, in the discriminating and sympathetic 
appreciation which he gave in The British Weekly 
of Dr. Matheson after the latter's death, referring 
to this course of lectures, remarks : " The first time 
we saw Dr. Matheson must have been some- 
where about 1 88 1. He was delivering the second 
of the Baird Lectures on a Sunday evening in 
St. George's, Edinburgh. The great building was 
but scantily filled, but the address, alike in matter, 
in form, and in utterance, was worthy of any 
audience. It seemed," he continues, 

as if we had in Dr. Matheson the coming prophet of the 
time. His face was turned with eager welcome towards the 
new light, and his strong brain was busy in the work of 
reconstruction and reconciliation. When the lecture was 
over we went to the Synod Hall and heard the latter part 
of an oration by Principal Cairns. This was a grand 
defence of the old apologetical positions, delivered with 
overwhelming passion and uncompromising in its ortho- 
doxy. That evening was indeed spent well and nobly. 
We had heard the fittest representatives of the old school 
and of the new. 

The late Professor Bruce, in an able review of 
Dr. Matheson's book in The British and Foreign 
Evangelical Review, was impressed much in the 
same way as Dr. Nicoll. He says: "With this 
publication the Baird Lectureship passes into a new 
phase. The book before us, while distinctly and 



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decidedly evangelic, is modern, liberal, and original. 
It may not be the ablest of the Baird series, — that 
honour probably belongs to Dr. Flint's two series 
of lectures on Theism and Antitheism, — but it is 
certainly the most genial. Dr. Matheson has 
poetry and genius in him, and it comes out in all he 
writes, and very markedly in this work on the 
Natural Elements of Revealed Theology, in which 
there is hardly a dull or a prosaic sentence," and he 
concludes as follows : 

The book is an earnest and eloquent endeavour to 
utilise the results of the science of comparative religion 
for the defence and commendation of Christianity as a 
revealed religion. Specially worthy of note is the mode 
in which the doctrine of Atonement is handled, the theory 
advocated being what may be called the organic, in which 
the idea of Headship plays a prominent part. Again, we 
heartily commend this work to the attention of all inter- 
ested in such questions, and especially to those who hail 
the appearance in the field of apologetics of a theologian 
of Dr. Matheson's type — orthodox, yet catholic in sym- 
pathy; a sincere believer in the revelation of grace, yet 
broad and genial in tendency. 

Reviews of the book appeared in many of the 
leading journals, and while for the most part dis- 
criminating in their criticism, they were all, without 
exception, hearty in their appreciation, and regarded 
the author's position as thoroughly established, and 
of the first rank. 



CHAPTER VII 

DEVOTION AND POETRY 

It was about this time that Dr. Matheson began 
to publish the long series of devotional books upon 
which, in the opinion of some, his fame will rest. 
He began at an early period of his ministry, as 
already pointed out, to substitute for the reading of 
the Scripture Lesson a meditation on some text or 
short passage of Holy Writ. He went through in 
this way, for instance, the whole of the Book of 
Psalms, and his thoughts, carefully conceived and 
written out, are contained in a manuscript volume. 
The majority of his hearers were greatly struck by 
these meditations. They preferred them to the 
ordinary reading of the Word, and they proved 
more helpful to some than the sermon which 
followed. As far back as 1872 he was urged, as 
we have seen, by Dr. Sime, who only expressed the 
desire of others, to publish a selection of these 
meditations in book-form. It was not, however, 
till ten years afterwards, in 1882, that he acceded 
to this request, and gave to the world the first of his 
devotional books, My Aspirations. 1 1 was published 

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DEVOTION AND POETRY 167 



by Cassell and Company, as one of their " Heart 
Chords Series." Its popularity was instantaneous. 
It has been frequently published since, the last 
edition coming out a few months after his death. 
It is not, I think, indulging in any exaggeration to 
say that no modern book of devotion has had so 
wide a circulation or has been more deeply prized. 
Soon after its publication it was translated into 
German, and it has formed the faithful companion 
of devout souls in many lands. A writer in The 
Examiner of November 10, 1904, in a review of 
the author's book, Leaves for Quiet Hours, remarks 
that on one occasion "he stayed at the house of a 
busy literary man, through whose study there was 
constantly streaming a flood of current literature 
for review. He was attracted by the deeply spiritual 
view-point of his host, and wondered how this 
attitude of mind was maintained in the critical 
atmosphere of such a life. A hint of an explanation 
was accorded, when the professional reviewer asked, 
' Do you know George Matheson ? ' and when he 
brought a shabby little book from his bedroom 
(was it My Aspirations}) and added, 'I read this 
every day.' " 

The cordial reception given to this booklet 
encouraged him to repeat, and with even greater 
success, his venture in Moments on the Mount, 
which appeared in 1884. This was followed by 
Voices of the Spirit in 1888, Searchings in the 
Silence in 1895, Words by the Wayside, also 
translated into German, in 1896, Times of Re- 



168 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



tirement in 1901, Leaves for Quiet Hours in 1904, 
and Rests by the River, the last book published by 
him, in 1906, a few months before his death. This 
list would make a good record for any ordinary 
man, but with Matheson these books were the 
production of his leisure hours, of those moments 
when he snatched himself from the strenuous 
labour of congregational work or sustained literary 
effort, and gave up his spirit to meditation on God, 
man, and immortality. They were in very truth 
the fruit of his times of retirement. In them he 
breathed forth his aspirations, they were leaves 
plucked in the byways of life to be fondly gazed 
at in quiet hours. In them he soared on the 
wings of the spirit, and they tell us what he saw 
when he stood on the Mount. In them more than 
in any other of his writings will the reader find the 
real George Matheson, the seer who saw because 
he had felt, and who quickened the emotions of his 
fellows because he had thought deeply on human 
life and destiny. 

Matheson must have known in publishing these 
volumes that he was entering on a field which had 
been in unbroken possession of some of the greatest 
names in Christian literature, and that he would be 
put into competition with the half-dozen authors 
whose devotional works had for generations been 
regarded as classics. It is indeed by the highest 
standard that he must be judged, and if the 
opinion of his contemporaries be of any value, 
he will rank for all time coming as one of the 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 169 



select band of devotional writers whose names the 
world will not readily let die. Matheson's great 
popularity may in the opinion of some be largely 
owing to the fact that he possesses the note of 
modernity, that his writings appeal to the day 
and the hour in a way that cannot be expected 
of meditations written centuries ago. But the 
human heart, with all its hopes and fears, has 
remained the same, and a book that has the true 
ring of devotion in it is as permanent as the spirit 
of man to which it appeals, and will comfort and 
inspire in every age and under every clime. 
True genius bridges the gulf of time ; it destroys 
space ; and this note of survival marks, in the 
opinion of many, the devotional writings of Dr. 
Matheson. 

Matheson in writing his meditations contented 
himself with being an interpreter of the devotional 
writings of the Jewish people. In other words, he 
invariably took his suggestions from some passage 
of Holy Writ. He did not pretend to create a 
new religious literature ; he did not presume to be 
independent of the source of all inspiration ; he 
contented himself with expounding and applying 
to the heart of the modern world the thoughts 
which found expression at the hands of the various 
writers of the Bible. In this we see a true instinct. 
Granted the gift of spiritual insight, deep personal 
experience, a knowledge of human life, and literary 
expression, a man so guided could not fail to be an 
interpreter of the devout life. Matheson possessed 



170 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



all these qualities in a supreme degree, and his 
books could not fail to win the popularity which 
they so quickly achieved. Having put himself in 
communion with the Spirit of truth, he was able to 
put himself in touch with the heart of humanity. 
Matheson was saturated with that book of devotion 
which is the pattern and precursor of that mass of 
literature, embodying the experience of the spiritual 
life, which has grown up during Christian centuries. 
I mean the Psalms. " They," as Dean Church 
remarks, "are the records of the purest and loftiest 
joy of which the human soul is capable, its joy in 
God ; are also the records of its dreariest and 
bitterest anguish, of the days when all seems dark 
between itself and God, of its doubts, of its despair. 
Their music ranges from the richest notes of 
triumphant rapture to the saddest minor key." 
Like the Psalms, Matheson's devotional writings 
" vary widely in their scale and tone. They reflect 
the many sides, the countless moods, of the soul in 
its passage through time, confronted with eternity 
and its overpowering possibilities. They tell of 
quietness and confidence, of strength and victory 
and peace. They tell, too, of the storm, of the 
struggle, of the dividing asunder of soul and spirit ; 
of perplexities which can be relieved only by the 
certainties of death ; of hope wrestling, indeed 
undismayed, unwavering, but wrestling in the dark, 
and when beheld for the last time on this side the 
grave still obstinate, but still unsolaced. Christian 
life may be upon the heights and in the sunlight ; 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 171 



the lines fall to it in pleasant places, and 1 the voices 
of joy and gladness are in its dwellings.' But its 
lot may be also 'in the deeps,' where 'all God's 
waves and storms have gone over it ' ; where the 
voices are those of 1 deep calling unto deep amid 
the roar of the water-spouts,' voices of anxiety 
and distress, of 1 majestic pains,' of mysterious 
sorrow." 

Matheson had formed a definite conception of 
devotional writing as a whole. He was familiar 
with Augustine's Manual, and its wonderful 
spiritual intensity ; with the lyrical outpourings of 
the immortal Imitation, with the beautiful 
mysticism of Francis of Sales, with holy George 
Herbert, with plain-spoken and melancholy Jeremy 
Taylor, and with the saintly Keble. It cannot be 
said that his meditations bear any deep trace of 
their influence. The man who, in one sense at 
least, impressed him most was Pascal. At all 
events he was at one with the writer of the famous 
Pensdes in believing that " devotion to be kept pure 
needs ideas as well as feelings." This is the point 
that he touches on in the Prefaces to three of his 
devotional volumes. In his Times of Retirement 
he refers thus to the subject : 

It is often said that devotion is a thing of the heart. 
I do not think it is either merely or mainly so. I hold 
that all devotion is based upon intellectual conviction. 
Even your sense of natural beauty is so based. Whence 
comes that joy with which you gaze on a bit of landscape 
you call a " picture-scene " ? Precisely from your in- 
tellectual conviction that it is not a picture; if you 



172 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



believed it to be a painting your emotion would die 
altogether. A man may have faith in what he does not 
understand, but he cannot have emotion in what he does 
not understand. The heart must have a theory for its 
own music. Therefore the devotional writer must have 
a message as much as the expositor. Devotion must 
be the child of reflection ; it may rise on wings, but they 
must be the wings of thought. The meditations of this 
little book will appeal to the instinct of prayer just in 
proportion as they appeal to the teaching of experi- 
ence ; therefore before all things I have endeavoured 
to base the feeling of the heart on the conclusions of the 
mind. 

In his next devotional volume, Leaves for 
Quiet Hours, he reverts to the same subject. It 
would seem as if he were anxious to guard his 
readers against the two dangers to which devotion 
is exposed. "The danger of becoming formal and 
uninterested, a sleepy routine ; and the danger of 
becoming artificial, fanciful, petty, of wasting itself 
in the unchastened flow of feelings and words ; of 
sinking into effeminacies and subtleties and delicate 
affectations of sentiment and language." So he 
remarks : 

Each devotional piece consists of two parts. The 
first is a suggestion of a thought, the second is the ex- 
pression of a feeling — either in the form of a prayer or 
of an invocation. But I hope that these two parts will 
never be divided in holy wedlock — that every fresh 
thought will be tinged with the heart's emotion, and 
that every emotion of the heart will be winged by the 
inspiration of a thought. A devotional book is believed 
to be a very simple thing. It ought to be the most 
difficult composition in the world, for it should aim at the 
marriage of qualities which are commonly supposed to be 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 173 



antagonistic — the insight of the thinker and the fervour 
of the worshipper. . My own conviction has increasingly 
been that the hours of our deepest devotion are precisely 
in those moments when we catch fresh glimpses of 
hidden things. 

In the last Preface which he ever wrote, the one 
to Rests by the River, he harps upon the same 
thing. He says these meditations are 

intended for devotional moments, but by devotional 
moments I do not mean moments of vacuity. It is not 
in its season of intellectual barrenness that the soul 
yields its spiritual fruit. Religious sentiment if it is 
worth anything must be preceded by religious perception. 
Accordingly I have divided these pieces into two parts, 
— the first containing a thought and the second either an 
invocation or a prayer. The appeals are to various 
moods of mind ; if some of them should find their way 
into hearts that have been unconsciously waiting for 
their message, the aim of this book will have been 
abundantly achieved. 

In an interesting interview, which he gave about 
two years before his death, he discusses at length the 
subject of devotional literature. " There is an idea 
abroad," he said, 

that devotional literature is altogether on a wrong basis. 
Well, while there is much to be remedied, I must say that 
I consider that is going rather too far. I think that 
literature of this kind is, as a rule, characterised by great 
honesty of purpose and thought. But we want more than 
that nowadays. It appears to me to be wanting in 
originality of thought and treatment ; indeed, I know 
certain good people who consider that the less originality 
it possesses the more it is adapted for devotional purposes, 
but my view is the very opposite. Devotion requires 
stimulation, exactly as it does any other human attribute ; 



174 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



the soul must be taught to think just as much as the mind 
is taught to think. I believe that our moments of devo- 
tion are just those when we have great ideas. Well, are 
those ideas not to be fed and encouraged ? It is on the 
wings of the intellect that the heart rises. Now it is on 
that basis that I have endeavoured to write all my 
devotional books. My remedy for the weakness of which 
we have been speaking would be to write books of a 
different nature ; to write Thomas a Kempis on the side, 
not of asceticism, but of the appropriateness of the world. 
I hold the deepest self-surrender, the noblest sacrifice to 
God, lies mainly in going into the world, not in running 
away from it. It is there that your devotion displays 
itself at its highest and best. 

As a devotional writer Dr. Matheson has many 
rare characteristics. One cannot take up the 
smallest of his volumes without being struck by its 
wide range of subjects. He sounded the heights 
and depths, the lengths and breadths of man's 
spiritual experience. The variety of his themes 
secured him a multitude of readers. The most 
indifferent cannot turn the leaves of any of his 
books of devotion without lighting upon one 
meditation, at least, which appeals to his heart. 
His moods, too, are as varied as his themes. A 
page that you would pass by to-day will rivet your 
attention to-morrow. Another striking feature is 
his catholicity. It would be impossible to tell the 
Church to which he belonged, or the school of 
thought which he favoured. He struck a note 
which found a response in the hearts of men what- 
ever might be their creed. His universality, too, is 
a marked quality. He appeals to the few and to 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 175 



the many, to the inner and the outer circle of 
discipleship, to the learned and to the unlearned, to 
the king and to the peasant. 

His devotional writings are characterised by 
certain qualities which single them out from the 
general mass of contemporary literature of the 
same class, and give them a foremost place among 
all the books of devotion which have been the off- 
spring of Christian thought and experience. They 
are marked by profound thought. Matheson could 
not write a line unless his intellect were satisfied. 
He was not one of those who believed in dividing 
human nature into so many compartments, of which 
mind was one and soul another. Man, in all his 
complexity, he believed to be of a piece ; and for 
him to have written what some might regard as 
religious, because it was void of thought, was 
impossible. His thought, besides, is always original. 
He could not help being original, and, as he 
remarks, "devotion requires stimulation." It is 
perhaps in his possession of this quality, more 
than in any other, that his excellence chiefly 
consists. ; Each meditation is based on a text of 
Scripture. How many have gazed at this same 
text without ever having received from it any 
inspiration or consolation. In Matheson's hands 
it shines with a new face, speaks with a divine 
voice, and utters the very word that the soul 
needed. ^ 

Dr. Matheson is not a writer for the sickroom 
merely ; he steadily keeps in view those whose 



176 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



duty lies in the " dusty lane and wrangling mart." 
He has a special message for the man of the world. 
Religion in common life is the ideal he ever kept 
before him. He was thus a practical mystic, and 
in this is to be found the secret of his success and 
the power of his teaching. The last of the qualities 
which characterise his devotional writings is his 
rare gift of style. There is a charm about it, a 
music in it, which appeals at once to the artistic 
and spiritual senses. The beauty of form may be 
but the natural expression of the beauty of thought, 
but it is the crown, and would of itself give his 
meditations a high place in devotional literature. 
Let me select two examples, one from his earliest 
and another from his all but latest book of devo- 
tions, in which these qualities are illustrated. In 
My Aspirations there is a meditation on " Christian 
Liberty." It is suggested by the text John x. 9 : 
" I am the door : by Me if any man enter in, he 
shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find 
pasture." 

To go in and out of a house at will is the mark of 
perfect liberty. It is the mark, not of a servant nor even 
of a guest, but of a son ; he who at will goes out and in is 
conscious that he is a member of the family. Our Lord 
says that the saved man is the free man — the man who 
goes in and out at the door. I had always thought it to 
be the contrary. I had come to persuade myself that to 
be saved was to be narrow, to be curtailed in the path of 
freedom. I never doubted that the saved man went in at 
the door ; it seemed to me that to be in the temple of God 
was to be about his Father's business. But that this man 
of all men should have a right to come out again at the 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 177 



same door by which he entered ; should have a right to go 
back into the pursuits of that world from which he came ; 
this was a thought which it did not enter into my heart to 
conceive. Yet this, and nothing less than this, is the 
teaching of our Lord. He says that the saved man had 
alone the right to be called the man of the world, alone 
the right to come out into the secular pleasures of men. 
He says that such a man will not only get no harm from 
the world ; he will get positive good from it, " he will find 
pasture." He will get from the things around him what 
he has brought to those things — a pure heart. He will 
see God in everything, because he has. seen Him in his 
own soul. He will find good in everything, because he 
himself is good. He will recognise in the world green 
pastures where the world itself recognises only a desert. 
He will hear the song of birds where the natural ear 
catches only the silence of the wilderness ; he will behold 
the myrtle where the eye of sense gazes only on the briar. 

My soul, art thou afraid of the Son of Man ? Art 
thou afraid to enter in at the heavenly door ? Art thou 
afraid that in becoming a Christian thoushalt lose thy 
power to act as a citizen ? Thou shalt for the first time 
gain that power ! Christ shall intensify thy natural gifts; 
the rest He gives is the ability to do better that earthly 
work which has been given thee to do. Dost thou fear 
that the pleasures of God's right hand will blunt thee to 
the joys of human affection? They will quicken them. 
God's love helps all other love as surely as the vision of 
the sun helps all other vision. God's love is something to 
love with, just as the sun's light is something to see with ; 
it teaches the loveless how to love. He who has been in 
at the Door is distinguished not only among angels but 
amongst men. He is marked out by the intensity of his 
human nature. Thou shalt know him from other men by 
his superior zeal in all earthly causes. He shall hope 
more for the world, he shall work more for the world, he 
shall suffer more for the world ; for it is in the world that 
he seeks for the pasture which has been provided by the 
Shepherd-King. He that enters by this Door goes in and 
out at will ! 



178 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



The second example is from his Leaves for 
Quiet Hours, It is on " In the Light of Eternity." 
There is a personal note in it which is not without 
its pathos ; it is at the same time a triumphant 
note. This son of affliction has a word of cheer, 
not only for the man of the world, but also for the 
child of sorrow. The meditation is suggested by 
two passages, the one from Psalm xxxvi. 9 : "In 
thy light shall we see light " ; and the other from 
Revelation xxi. 23: "The Lamb is the light 
thereof." 

Nothing is seen in its own light — not even a visible 
thing. A landscape is not seen in its own light ; it is 
perceived very much in the light of yesterday. How 
little of what you see is mere perception ! Every sight of 
nature is tinged with the light of memory. The poet 
looks from the bridge at midnight upon the rushing 
waters ; but what he sees is not the flowing tide, it is a 
tide of memory which fills his eyes with tears. You listen 
to the babbling of the brook ; but what you hear is not 
the babbling, it is the utterance of a dear name. You 
visit Rome, you visit Jerusalem, you visit Greece ; do you 
see any of these by its own light ? No ; they are all 
beheld by the light of yesterday; there is their glory, 
there lies their gold ! " Even so," cries the Psalmist, " it 
is with this world ; if you want to see it, you must look 
at it by the light of another world — God's coming world. 
He does not mean that when we quit the scenes of earth 
we shall have a bright light in heaven. It is more than 
that. It is for the scenes of earth he wants the heavenly 
light. He says you cannot interpret your own skies 
without it. We often say that in the light of eternity 
earthly objects will fade from our sight. But the Psalmist 
says that until we get the light of eternity earthly objects 
will not be in our sight. It is by the light of the Celestial 
City — the City which has no need of the sun — that alone 
we can tell what here is large and what here is small. 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 179 



Thou Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world, 
Thou art the Light thereof ! When God said, " Let us 
make man ! " He meant not Adam, but Thee. Thou art 
the plan of the great building ; to Thee all things move. 
By no other light can I understand the struggles of this 
earth. Not by nature's light can I understand them ; I 
have seen the physical sunshine sparkle on my pain, and 
I thought it a cruel thing. Not by philosophy's light can 
I understand them ; I have seen the great thinker impeded 
by poverty and I thought it an unseemly thing. Not in 
beauty's light can I understand them ; I have seen the 
artist lose his eyesight and I thought it an unrighteous 
thing. But if the world is being woven for Thee, I under- 
stand. If Thy type of sacrifice is the plan of the Architect, 
I understand. If Thy cross is Creation's crown, I under- 
stand. If the Celestial City is a home for hospital training, 
I understand. If Thine angels are all ministering spirits, 
I understand. If the purest robe is not the white robe 
^l>ut the robe washed white, if the goal of man is not Eden 
but Gethsemane, if the glory of Thy Father is the sacri- 
ficial blood of love, then have I found the golden key, in 
Thy Light I have seen Light ! 

As might be expected, Dr. Matheson received 
from almost every part of the world letters of 
the deepest gratitude for the comfort which his 
meditations afforded to weary and despondent 
souls. It may be sufficient to give one letter as 
an example of the many that he received ex- 
pressing the gratitude of those who found in his 
books the consolation that their souls needed. The 
letter is from a clergyman in Belfast, and is dated 
1 14th October 1904 : 

I have just got your Leaves for Quiet Hours. I feel 
that I ought to put on paper what has been in my mind and 
heart since I first began to read your helpful messages. 

Ten years ago, when a probationary minister in our 



180 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



Nottingham circuit, I visited a poor woman, who for 
thirteen years had been afflicted with a lingering form 
of cancer which had affected her head. Night and day- 
she was in pain. She told me she could not remember 
much nor think out anything, but said she, " I have a 
little book and it does help me." It was a well-worn 
copy of My Aspirations. "Which was the one she 
liked best," I asked ? " Ah ! " said she, and I shall never 
forget her bright look, although her head was as though 
there were coals of fire upon it, " And God saw everything 
that He had made, and behold it was very good." In 
fragments she almost gave me the whole of it. Said 
she, " My Sabbath is coming ; it seems as though some- 
times I hear the morning bells." I remember, not long 
before she passed away, I called late one night, and I 
found her suffering acutely. Her devoted daughter had 
dressed her terrible wounds — a task from which the 
trained visiting nurses would turn away, almost over- 
powered. I noticed the laudanum bottle almost empty, 
and then it flashed upon me, in spite of their comfortable 
home, they were feeling the pinch of poverty. The 
daughter, with tears in her eyes, told me that laudanum 
cost, so much. When someone went out to get what 
alone could allay the burning pain, I saw in the hand 
of the sufferer, as she lay apparently asleep, the little 
book, My Aspirations. She once said the doctor wondered 
how she could bear the burning of her wound with so 
little outward relief, but, added the frail woman, " I 
know." I have often wished to tell you what service 
your book was to that poor afflicted woman. It was 
through her I was introduced to your unspoken ministry, 
and I venture to take this opportunity of respectfully 
expressing my great indebtedness to you for your inspiring 
and sustaining writings. 

I have sometimes thought that if a few of your valued 
meditations were printed on little slips, or cards, with 
a view to their circulation in hospitals and amongst the 
sick at home, I believe your messages would be words 
in season for the weary and more than welcome to the 
afflicted. I have put My Aspirations in more than one 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 181 



chamber of sorrow. It has brought heaven a little 
nearer and their lives have been blessed, while others 
have been helped to quietly wait until they entered 
into rest. * 

The year that saw the publication of his first 
volume of Meditations also witnessed the com- 
position of his famous hymn, " O Love that wilt 
not let me go." The circumstances under which 
it was written are well-known. He himself has 
furnished the following interesting account of its 
genesis : " My hymn was composed in the manse 
of Innellan on the evening of 6th June 1882. I 
was at that time alone. It was the day of my 
sister's marriage, and the rest of the family were 
staying over night in Glasgow. Something had 
happened to me, which was known only to myself, 
and which caused me the most severe mental 
suffering. The hymn was the fruit of that suffering. 
It was the quickest bit of work I ever did in my 
life. I had the impression rather of having it 
dictated to me by some inward voice than of 
working it out myself. I am quite sure that the 
whole work was completed in five minutes, and 
equally sure that it never received at my hands 
any retouching or correction. The Hymnal Com- 
mittee of the Church of Scotland desired the change 
of one word. I had written originally 1 I climbed 
the rainbow in the rain.' They objected to the 
word 'climb' and I put 'trace.'" 

Matheson at the time at which this hymn was 
written was no novice in the art of poetical com- 



182 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



position. This form of literary expression was, 
as we have seen, the earliest practised by him. 
He wrote, when quite a youth, long poems, but, 
apart from the two referred to in a previous chapter, 
nearly all his writings in this form were on sacred 
subjects. He had the lyrical note strongly 
developed in his nature. Much of his writing, 
particularly his meditations, was couched in a 
poetic strain ; he delighted in song and music, and 
his soul demanded at times to utter itself in verse. 
There still remains a very considerable collection 
of unpublished poems by him, all in the strain with 
which readers of his Sacred Songs are familiar. 
They were written at different periods, and were 
collected at intervals into forms that suggest the 
intention of publication, but he delayed this purpose 
until 1889, when, after a final revision, he gave a 
selection of them to the world. 

In a scrap-book, carefully preserved, it is 
interesting to find a number of sacred songs by 
him, cut out from some magazine or periodical in 
which they first appeared. They are framed in 
coloured flowers, and evidently show the tender 
guardianship of his sister's hand. There is no 
guide as to the journals in which they were 
published, but so early as 1875 one of his best- 
known hymns, " My voice shalt Thou hear in the 
morning," appeared in the Sunday Magazine. 
This he thought worthy of reproduction in his 
volume of Sacred Songs. Again, in 1878, under 
the heading of " God with us," there appeared in 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 183 



the same magazine the hymn which he afterwards 
published under the title of " Jacob at Bethel." 
Two more hymns, " Strength for the Day " and 
" Jesus, Fountain of my Days," also found a place 
in the Sunday Magazine ; the former with the 
heading, " Times of Need," in 1881 ; and the latter 
with the title, "Above every Name," in 1884. 
Other poems by him were sent, as the occasion 
arose, to various magazines, which gave them a 
ready welcome. 

Matheson never took himself very seriously as 
a hymn- writer, but the public has largely reversed 
his judgment, for his volume of Sacred Songs 
ran within a few years into a third edition. In his 
Preface to the issue which appeared in 1904, he 
says : " I was originally much exercised as to what 
title I ought to give these verses collectively. 
The difficulty arose from the desire to avoid pre- 
tentiousness, by seeming to claim for them more 
than they aspired to be. I decided that, in point 
of form, their distinctive feature was a varied 
rhythmicalness, and therefore I called them Sacred 
Songs. The subject-matter was suggested by 
Scriptural texts, but there was no attempt to classify 
or systematise : I simply followed the impression 
of the moment and endeavoured to express the 
sentiment in its appropriate cadence. These pieces 
were never intended as a volume of hymns ; but, 
contrary to my expectations, many of them have 
been so adapted." 

It is but right in estimating Matheson's poetic 



184 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



effusions to keep what he thus says clearly in mind. 
There are few kinds of composition about which 
there has been so much controversy as hymns. 
The lines on which lyric, epic, and dramatic poetry 
are composed are well marked, and generally recog- 
nised and followed ; but some of the most popular 
hymns, according to experts, violate every canon, 
and captivate the heart in spite of their rebellion 
against the laws which ought to govern them. 
Matheson accordingly was perfectly justified in 
guarding himself against the criticism that might 
be brought to bear upon his productions in verse. 
He declared that they were Sacred Songs, and not 
Hymns. Looking at them in this light, one is 
impressed, not only by their variety of rhythmical- 
ness, but also of theme. Like his Meditations, they 
touch religious thought and experience at almost 
every point, and open windows of feeling and 
emotion through which divine light and comfort 
pour in. The themes may be varied, but they 
have one subject : the Divine Love. " And now 
abideth Faith, Hope, Charity, these three, but 
the greatest of these is Charity," might be taken 
as their motto ; and right through them there 
breathes that spirit of Christian optimism which 
characterised his preaching, his writing, and his 
life. The darkest day does not dismay him ; the 
sorest disappointment does not crush him ; the 
bitterest anguish or the cruellest pain does not 
daunt him ; the waves and the billows of life 
may pass over his soul without quenching its 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 185 



ardour or drowning its hope. The Divine Love 
he sees in all ; the Cross of Christ assures him 
of victory. 

Matheson had very clear notions of what a 
hymn should be. At all events, he subjected to 
sharp criticism modern hymnology in one respect at 
least, its lack of human sentiment. Being asked 
on one occasion what he thought of our hymns 
generally, he shook his head strongly as he replied : 

To my mind they have one great defect; they lack 
humanitarianism. There is any amount of doctrine in 
the Trinity, Baptism, Atonement, or the Christian life 
as such, but what of the secular life — the infirmary, the 
hospital, the home of refuge? When I was asked to 
preach a charity sermon some time ago, I searched 
through the hymnal in vain for any hymn that would 
suit my subject, but there was no incentive to charity 
as such. I don't think our hymns will ever be what 
they ought to be, until we get them inspired by a sense 
of the enthusiasm of, and for, humanity. It is rather a 
theological point, perhaps, but the hymnists speak of the 
surrender to Christ. They forget that Christ is not 
simply an individual. He is Head of a body, the body 
of humanity ; and it no longer expresses the idea 
correctly to join yourself to Christ only, you must give 
yourself to the whole brotherhood of man to fulfil the 
idea. I like " Lead, kindly Light " ; it is universal, 
though not practical, perhaps ; it is vague, and applies 
to any religion. Another good hymn is " Trust in God 
and do the Right," written by Dr. Norman Macleod, a 
good and practical hymn. " We give Thee but Thine 
Own " sounds the real humanitarian note to the father- 
less and widows. Hymnology is feeble and ineffective 
when it ignores the humanitarian side of religion. 

There is a strong note of modernity in this 
criticism. Matheson lived in the age of practical 



186 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



Christianity, and he appreciated its significance 
to the full. It may be true that he was a mystic. 
He was constantly brooding upon divine things ; 
his spirit was frequently in other lands than this. 
He was convinced that the ideal is the real, and 
that the life which is perceptible to the eye of 
faith encircled all life, that it was the beginning 
and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, of human 
experience. Such a belief, however, did not trans- 
form him into a mere dreamer of dreams. He felt 
it to be his vocation to interpret man's varied 
life in the light of the divine, and to see the law 
which is behind all facts revealing itself in human 
vicissitudes. It was this that made his preaching 
so inspiring to the vast majority of his hearers, 
and caused his Meditations to be welcomed, as 
glad tidings, all over the world. It is this also 
which will preserve his Sacred Songs from 
falling readily into oblivion ; they will continue 
to have a message for the day and the hour ; 
their humanitarian note will preserve them from 
growing out of date, as writings which have no 
relation to man's troubles, man's needs, and man's 
aspirations. 

The criticisms on his volume, Sacred Songs, 
refer with a unanimity which must have good 
ground, in fact, to a feature which is common 
indeed to nearly the whole of Matheson's writings. 
They emphasise the note of catholicity that 
pervades the book. But Matheson's catholicity 
did not arise from indifference. He did not 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 187 



simply assume a theological standpoint of his 
own and quietly ignore all others. It was his 
aim to stand on a platform so broad that he 
could find room on it for every one, whether 
Pagan or Christian, who was struggling towards 
the light. In such a position is to be found 
the true spirit of reconciliation, which sees the 
unifying element in each, seizes it and links all 
together in a bond which they interpret, and 
which at the same time interprets them. They 
find their meaning in it, and it finds its meaning 
in them. Such a method does not lop off what 
may seem incongruous, or irreconcilable, in the 
different forms of faith which it unifies. If it did, 
it would be a destructive, and not a constructive, 
method. It, on the contrary, gathers them together 
as they are ; and the central truth of each, being at 
bottom an eternal truth, linked to Him who is the 
Truth, of its own accord sheds what is defective, 
and receives new strength and life from Him to 
whom it is joined. In a poem of sterling excellence 
Matheson clothes his teaching on this subject in a 
form which is certain to live. He entitles it " One 
in Christ," and bases it on Ephesians i. 10 : 4 'That 
in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might 
gather together in one all things in Christ." 

I Gather us in, Thou Love that fillest all ! 
Gather our rival faiths within Thy fold ! 
Rend each man's temple veil and bid it fall, 

That we may know that Thou hast been of old ; 
Gather us in ! 



188 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



2 Gather us in ! we worship only Thee ; 

In varied names we stretch a common hand ; 
In diverse forms a common soul we see ; 
In many ships we seek one spirit-land ; 
Gather us in ! 

3 Each sees one colour of Thy rainbow light, 

Each looks upon one tint and calls it heaven ; 
Thou art the fulness of our partial sight ; 
We are not perfect till we find the seven ; 
Gather us in ! 

4 Thine is the mystic light great India craves, 

Thine is the Parsee's sin-destroying beam, 
Thine is the Buddhist's rest from tossing waves, 
Thine is the empire of vast China's dream ; 
Gather us in ! 

5 Thine is the Roman's strength without his pride, 

Thine is the Greek's glad world without its graves, 
Thine is Judea's law with love beside, 

The truth that centres and the grace that saves ; 
Gather us in ! 

6 Some seek a Father in the heavens above, 

Some ask a human image to adore, 
Some crave a spirit vast as life and love : 

Within Thy mansions we have all and more ; 
Gather us in ! 

In the third edition of his Sacred Songs he 
included his hymn " O Love that wilt not let me 
go," which first appeared in Life and Work. 
Whatever may be the future of his other writings, 
this hymn, we may confidently hope, will be sung 
by congregations of the Christian Church so long 
as the Cross and the Divine love of which it is 
the symbol will continue to lift up the head of 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 189 



fallen humanity. He himself always regarded 
this hymn as his piece de resistance. He in a 
way took no credit for it ; it was given to him 
in a moment of divine afflatus, and he simply f 
transcribed what was communicated. This is the 
orthodox view of inspiration, and so far it may be 
sound enough ; but it should not be forgotten that 
poets are cradled into poetry by wrong, and learn 
in suffering what they teach in song. In other 
words, like the prophets of old their moments of 
inspiration are preceded by years of earnest 
thought and spiritual communion. The subjects 
on which they have long brooded may, in the 
twinkling of an eye, and without conscious effort 
on their part, be seen in a new light ; the mystery 
is unveiled by an unseen hand, and the soul gazes 
upon the land delectable. One should not, accord- 
ingly, be surprised to find critics of this hymn 
pointing to the fact that Matheson had in previous 
publications expressed its thoughts almost in 
similar words. They quote passages from his 
Meditations in which the very phrases of the hymn 
are anticipated. But I can do more : there is in 
manuscript a poem by him on the rainbow, of 
which the first line is " Jesus, Rainbow of my 
Sorrow." Here we have a forecast of the line so 
much admired, " I trace the rainbow through the 
rain." Indeed, such anticipations, in place of 
detracting from ought to enhance the value of this 
hymn, for in it we see the fugitive, the scattered 
experiences, the chance phrases of the poet gathered 



190 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



together, and under the pressure of a deep 
spiritual experience fused by his genius into a 
perfect whole. 

Dr. Matheson always modestly insisted that 
his hymn was greatly indebted to the music written 
for it by Dr. Peace ; indeed, there may be some 
excuse for those who declare that, but for Dr. 
Peace's tune, it would not have attained its great 
popularity. When somebody once complimented 
Cardinal Newman on the great vogue of his " Lead, 
kindly Light," he replied, " Ah, yes ; but, you see, 
the tune is by Dr. Dykes." What " Lux Benigna" 
did for Newman's hymn, "St. Margaret" did for 
Dr. Matheson's. The latter tune was composed 
with as little deliberation as Dr. Matheson wrote 
the hymn. As musical editor of the Scottish 
Hymnal, which at the time was passing through 
the hands of the Committee of the Church of Scot- 
land, Dr. Peace was in the habit of always carry- 
ing in his pocket a copy of the words for careful 
study. Sitting one day on the sands at Arran, he 
was reading " O Love that wilt not let me go " when 
the tune came upon him like a flash, and, taking 
out his pencil, he dashed it off in a few minutes. 

Dr. Matheson was in the habit of receiving 
constant communications regarding his hymn. 
The most frequent of these was asking his liberty 
to use it for one church or congregational book of 
praise or another. But he also received letters 
from different parts of the country, and indeed of 
the world, expressing the gratitude of some soul 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 191 



to whom its teaching and its music had proved a 
source of unfading comfort. Of such a character 

is the following : — 

° Oakfield, Glaslyn Road, 

Crouch End, London, N. 
February 26, 1904. 

My Dear Sir, — You have before very kindly permitted 
me to use some of your hymns and poems, and I am 
again coming to you as a beggar. It happens that I 
have just completed a new Hymnal for Boys, to be used 
in Public Schools, Boys' Brigades, Clubs, etc., and Young 
Men's Meetings. I have also just completed arrangements 
for a revised edition of the Christian Endeavour Hymnal^ 
and in both of these books desire to include " O Love that 
wilt not let me go." I trust that you will be able to 
accord me the desired permission, and presume that for 
the tune I must apply to Dr. Peace. 

It will interest you if I refer to an incident that has 
touched me greatly within the last few days. In the 
church where I was pastor in Southampton there was a 
young girl, a very beautiful character, the daughter of an 
artist. She was stricken with a terrible illness, and 
suffered intensely, but recovered in a wonderful manner, 
remaining apparently well for a year. Then, suddenly, 
the old disease reasserted itself, and she again passed 
through a fiery furnace of pain. The fires were those of 
purifying, for a wonderful change was wrought in her 
character and in her very face. Your hymn was learnt 
in our choir, of which she was a member, and from the 
first it became a ministrant influence in her life, and 
became for her the expression of deepest desire. She 
was a girl exceptionally gifted, and clung to the very 
last to the hope that she might continue her studies ; and 
when the doctor told her that she must give these up, 
after a long struggle she found the haven of trust and 
rest through the hymn, and relinquished her ambition, 
resting in the Divine love. When the end came, and 
when her own voice had gone, the mother saw that she 
wished to speak — and, bending over her, heard her whisper, 
" Mother, sing me ' O Love that wilt not let me go ' " ; and 



192 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



the music of this song ushered her into the presence of 
the Father. She was laid to rest a few days ago, and 
her comrades of the choir gathered round the grave and 
again sung the hymn. 

How great a privilege and joy are yours in this 
marvellous ministry ? — Believe me, most truly yours, 

Carey Bonner. 

The world-wide reputation of the hymn receives 
emphatic proof from the following communication. 
It relates to the Sunday-School Convention held 
at Jerusalem in the spring of 1904, when the 
representatives of fifty -five different Christian 
communions, gathered from twenty-six different 
nations of the world, united together to the number 
of 1800 in singing Matheson's famous hymn on the 
brows of Calvary : 

Glasgow, 
Sunday Evenings February 18, 1906. 

Dear Dr. Matheson, — I have just been reading in 
the last issue of Saint Andrew an interesting paper on your 
noble hymn " O Love that wilt not let me go." It 
brought back to memory an incident connected with your 
hymn, of which I wish to tell you. 

I was one of the pilgrim band in the Fourth World's 
S.S. Convention which assembled in Jerusalem in the 
spring-time of 1904. It was possibly the most cosmo- 
politan assembly that ever met in the name of Christ. 
Convened in the interests of the Sabbath-school cause, it 
seemed to realise a strange fulfilment of the promise, 
" A little child shall lead them." Representatives from 
the ends of the earth were present. It would be difficult to 
name a country that was not represented. Fifty-five different 
sects or faiths were there, gathered from twenty-six different 
nations. Our meeting-place was a huge tent seated for 
1800, pitched on Calvary — close by Gordon's Calvary. 
On the Sunday morning of our mission the vast tent 
was crowded with worshippers. Archdeacon Sinclair, of 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 193 



London, preached a noble sermon from Matthew xxi. 15,16. 

The closing hymn was your own noble song, " O Love " 

I have joined in the singing of it times without number, 
but never did I hear it sung with such fervour. In that 
strange assembly of divers nations nearly all seemed to 
know it and to love it, and a mighty flood of melody 
swept through the vast tent, as if all hearts knew only 
one common brotherhood in Christ. I was so deeply 
moved that ere the last verse came round I could only 
read in a convulsive sob. 

Two thoughts gave birth to this emotion. 

Here, in distant Syria, was I, a Glasgow man, sharing in 
this song from the pen of a fellow-citizen, and the melody 
also written by one closely associated with the Service of 
Praise in the Cathedral of Glasgow. I thought of the 
" ocean depths " of that wondrous Love that is fashioning 
one great family of all the nations on the face of the 
earth. 

The other thought was, that we were standing, pos- 
sibly within a few paces of the veritable spot where was 
planted that Cross that lifted up our heads, the actual 
ground where was shed the sacrificial blood whence 
blossoms red life that shall endless be. It was in my 
mind, when I came back from Palestine, to write telling 
you this little story ; but alas ! how often purposes are 
allowed to slip unfulfilled. The reading of the sketch in 
Saint Andrew revived the memory and rekindled the 
desire. 

Suffer an aged friend and warm admirer of your 
writings, one who has passed the extreme limit of the 
life's journey assigned by the Psalmist, to express the 
earnest hope that God may spare you for many years 
to continue to enrich the Christian world with your 
noble, inspiring thought. — Believe me, etc. 

J. Ingram. 

The last contribution which I shall give in this 
connection was sent to me by a missionary in 
India. It testifies to the overwhelming power of 
13 



194 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



Matheson's hymn when played and sung by a 
musician of the first rank : 

It was in March 1904, and the sunshiny scene still 
lives in my memory. I had left my hotel and made my 
way through the picturesque crowds in the streets of 

A . The Sabbath was essentially a French one. By 

force of habit I had turned aside that day from globe- 
trotting pursuits, and taken my place in the Church of 
the United Frees among some threescore of God's people, 
whose mother-tongue was English. 

On my right and left were missionaries of the North 
African Mission. They found it refreshing to assemble 
for worship, in the midst of their labours among a 
fanatical Mahomedan people ; they from Africa and I 
from India. It seemed to me a meeting of the oceans, 
that we should stand for worship in the same pew, and 
sing out of the same hymnal. I could not, of course, turn 
round to see who sat behind, but worshippers in front 
looked like those who might be residing in this watering- 
place for purposes of health or trade, — some were certainly, 
like myself, of the tourist type. Immediately in front of 
me was the English Consul, a man well over six feet, with 
shoulders like Sandow's. On his left was his wife — also 
tall and well built. 

The church was not built for show, but for use. By this 
I do not mean that it was common. There was an aisle 
on each side, and the seats ran right across the width of the 
structure. A platform was placed in front, on the side of 
which the organ stood. The pulpit was at the rear of this 
platform, and suitably raised for its purpose. Thus 
minister and organist were in our full view. 

The organ was in keeping with the building : a plain 
instrument of the American type. The organist was a 
lady. 

What the minister preached about I really forget. 
Perhaps that was not the preacher's fault. He was a 
pastor there for his health, and displayed no special 
vigour. I have no objection to a written sermon, but that 
morning the read sermon seemed, though an able treatise, 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 195 



to fall flat. The order of service was what I had been 
used to in Wellesley Square United Free Church, 
Calcutta. To me it was all lifeless, formal, uneventful, 
messageless, comfortless. Even the words and music of 
the hymns had failed to stir the deeps of my nature that 
day. I blame no one. Perhaps I was not in a receptive 
spirit. I cannot tell — but so it was. On went the 
minutes, and I was not sorry. 

The hour had at last fled. Invocations, lessons, prayers, 
sermon, collection, announcements were all over. What 
had been a most uneventful service to me was now to 
be punctuated by a hymn and a benediction. The 
minister announced George Matheson's " O Love that wilt 
not let me go." When a much loved hymn is announced 
in Wales, the land I know best, the people stir with joy, 
and cast meaning glances at each other. The worshippers 
stand as if to pour out their hearts, and one gets thrilled 
before a chord is struck. That morning it was all 
contrary. " Listless " could have been written over the 
whole service. The announcement of even that hymn 
seemed to stir no one. 

While the minister was reading the first verse I 
noticed a man of, perhaps, fifty change seats with the lady 
organist. 

It was nothing to mark. " He is the local organist," 
I thought, "and the lady is a visitor." Suddenly the 
notes were touched and the little American organ seemed 
to have been " born again." Bar followed bar. We all 
brightened up. There was a master at the keys. We 
stood and sang : 

" O Love that wilt not let me go, 
I rest my weary soul in Thee : 
I give Thee back the life I owe, 
That in Thine ocean depths its flow 
May richer, fuller be." 

Was the change in me or in my environment? I 
cannot tell. The lost chord seemed to have been found. 
If a seraph had come to wake me with a song of Zion, 
the surprise would not have been greater. The organist 



196 DEVOTION AND POETRY 



seemed in the third heaven. Here and there he made 
pauses not in the book. He sang and played and 
carried us on irresistibly. Then we plunged into the 
second verse : 

" O Light that followest all my way, 
I yield my flickering torch to Thee : 
My heart restores its borrowed ray, 
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day 
May brighter, fairer be." 

I could not fail to notice the deep emotion of the 
Consul's wife, for she stood in the next pew in front. 
She had ceased to sing, her trembling was manifest. The 
music was like the sound of many waters. The volume 
of it increased. The third verse was reached : 

" O Joy that seekest me through pain, 
I cannot close my heart to Thee : 
I trace the rainbow through the rain, 
And feel the promise is not vain, 

That morn shall tearless be." 

With a strange suddenness the Consul's wife fell on 
her knees and was convulsed with emotion. With her 
hands she covered her face, while the majestic music 
swept on. The husband knew not what to do, for all eyes 
were turned towards his wife. With inborn calmness 
and strong sympathy he then bowed in prayer at his 
wife's side. The sight was beautiful, and there were many 
wet eyes near where I stood. But what of the organist ? 
He was in rhapsody. Down his furrowed face tears 
made their way. His head of curls added impressiveness 
to the scene. Bending over the keys, he poured out his 
very soul. Of time and space he seemed ignorant. The 
emphasis was that of intense feeling, born of rare experi- 
ence, controlled by musical ability — both instrumental and 
vocal. 

When we reached the last verse I, for one, wished 
blind Matheson had provided us with more. And yet 
we might not have been able to bear it. 



DEVOTION AND POETRY 197 



" O Cross that liftest up my head, 
I dare not ask to fly from Thee : 
I lay in dust life's glory dead, 
And from the ground there blossoms red 
Life that shall endless be." 

The scene continued the same to the end, only with 
deeper feeling. Great was the relief when the last note 
died away, and the minister, as awed as the rest of us, 
pronounced the benediction. So great was the solemnity 
of the occasion that no one wanted to disturb the 
silence by rising from their knees. 

When the congregation did rise to disperse, several 
went forward to thank the organist. I was one of them. 
In the group were several Americans, and one said to 
the organist, still bathed in tear-marks, " We knew your 
wife." The one answer was a quiet smile, followed by a 
quick retirement from the church. This man did not 
feast on plaudits or compliments. He was gone before 
we could say a tithe of what we felt. 

In the aisles and at the church door I learned that 
the man^who had waked up everybody's soul was a 
distinguished Christian singer of England and Scotland. 
Two years before his wife lay a-dying — and she was an 
American, equal to him in musical talent. She had 
asked him to sing to her, as she entered the valley of the 
shadow of death, " O Love that wilt not let me go." He 
did so, but had not ventured to sing it again until that 
memorable morning. Ah, that was a sufficient explana- 
tion. Sorrow had wrought the power. 

I wended my way hotel-wards, but my thoughts were 
on the wings of the music — " blossoming red." Such 
music (that lost chord), set to such words, I can never 
hope to hear again until I stand within the gates of the 
New Jerusalem. 



CHAPTER VIII 

LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 

Dr. Matheson's congregation at Innellan now 
felt that it was time they should give some ex- 
pression to their feelings of admiration for him 
as their minister. He had been with them for 
fifteen years, and he had endeared himself to them 
in many ways. As a preacher and a writer he 
had won recognition from a wider public. His 
reputation had gained for him academic honours, 
and theological experts had cordially accepted his 
claims as an author of undoubted ability. The 
people of Innellan, who had from the very first 
responded to his eloquence in the pulpit and 
who had all along appreciated his pastoral care, 
resolved to give expression to their gratitude. 
By the visitors to the seaside village, and by a 
growing circle of readers of his books, one side 
of his character and one aspect of his work were 
known ; but by his parishioners he was also 
admired for his interest in them, for his con- 
cern and sympathy in cases of moral failure, 
of bodily sickness, or of spiritual distress. Dr. 

198 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 199 



Sime, speaking of his work in this connection, 
says : 

As our professional lives in the place intermingled 
everywhere, it was not only in the library of the manse 
that we met, and seldom have I seen a clergyman so near 
the heart of parishioners, not merely in prosperity and 
success — that is easy and hardly wanted — but in sorrow 
and distress, in health and disease, in work and worship. 
His cheerful, uniformly unclouded optimism was every- 
where welcomed, alike in joy and unhappiness, in disap- 
pointment and failure. He was the instigator of the 
public lectures during winter and the centre of every 
good movement of the place, and his humour on the 
platform was as excellent as it was in the library or in 
private, being of the genuine thistly Celtic character, with 
much imagination, an imagination appealing to the brain 
quite as much as the heart. But he could be found manly 
with all his cheerfulness and unwavering optimism. An 
intelligent farmer, a favourite of his, who read and studied 
much beyond agriculture, but who at one time was un- 
fortunately addicted to occasional fits of bad excess, once, 
for example, told me, that he was established in his 
quiet, manly restraint by one or two observations of the 
blind young clergyman. His failing, the minister said to 
him, was no doubt due to a hereditary weakness, but there 
was no use blaming for it one's forebears ; that was not 
manly, it was cowardly. The giving way to the failing 
was a return to the brute, a still older forebear ; all 
sensuality and selfish appetite and ungovernable greed 
being a return, a reversion, to the beast in man. The 
weakness was there, in even a good, noble man, for him 
to conquer, and to make a good, clever man the best of 
men. Renunciation, he said, was the essential to the 
primary condition, for a brave worthy man to show his 
sterling worth. 

Again, to reveal the condition of mind of my friend as 
he even departed from, not entered, the house of genuine 
tribulation. On another occasion I remember to have 
suddenly met him with his private secretary, which I often 



200 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



did, as they were just coming out of the garden of a 
patient. This patient had been long ill of a mortal 
disease, and was at that time near death. The resigna- 
tion of this lady and her saintly suffering had been long 
noted, and spoken of, by Dr. Matheson. As I passed 
into the garden walk, my friend, laying his hand on my 
shoulders, assured me in a word that the serenity of the 
summer sky was now in the lady's talk, for possibly, he 
added, there was in her vision the rosy gates of some 
Paradise. 

It was on the last Saturday of August 1883, 
just before the crowd of summer visitors had begun 
to leave Innellan, that Dr. Matheson was invited to 
meet the congregation in the Parish Church, to 
receive at their hands a token of their esteem and 
admiration of him personally, and of gratitude 
for the help his books and sermons had given 
them. 

Mr William Stevenson, Colinwood House, a 
lifelong friend and admirer of Dr. Matheson, 
presided, and, in making the presentation, said : 

Dr. Matheson has now been fully fifteen years in 
Innellan, having been ordained on 28th May 1868. Those 
present know how the church had grown. I remember a 
few years ago, when their minister was plain Mr. Matheson, 
saying to him : Well, Mr. Matheson, I'll live to see the day 
when the people will fill the passages. Dr. Matheson laughed 
at me, but I leave those present to judge whether or not I 
was a true prophet. I had taken a leading part in getting 
the little church endowed and Innellan erected into a 
parish. That was in 1873. Looking over old books and 
papers, I find that at that time the ordinary collection 
was very modest, and when it ascended to the munifi- 
cent sum of a few shillings we were all surprised, and 
rejoiced with an exceeding great joy. That was not long 
ago. Now the ordinary collections average over six 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 201 



pounds. To what was this due ? To what and to whom 
but to the work and person of him in whose honour we 
have met to-night. I do not need to speak to you of the 
good works and words of Dr. Matheson. Dr. Matheson 
is known over the length and breadth of the land, and our 
Innellan is known and renowned as the place where lives 
and works Dr. George Matheson, the Preacher, Theologian, 
and Poet. 

Dr. Matheson, replying on behalf of his sister, 
who was associated with him in the gift, and him- 
self, said : 

It is with feelings of deep emotion that I rise this night 
to thank you. I have to thank you, Mr. Stevenson, for 
that energetic kindness which, after having been one of 
my main supports since the inauguration of this parish, 
has crowned itself in the initiation of a movement so 
friendly and so disinterested ; and I have to thank you, 
ladies and gentlemen, for the warm and generous co- 
operation with which the movement has been seconded 
and sustained. There are times in a man's life in which 
he seems to stand on the summit of a Nebo, not to behold 
a promised land in the future, but to survey the trodden 
country of the past. Such a moment have you brought 
to me. You have caused me to hear a rush of old 
memories — the spiritual refrain of a ministry of fifteen 
years. The costly and munificent gift which this night 
you have presented to me is no mere piece of mechanism ; 
it is a piece of mechanism with a heart in it — the united 
hearts of a congregation. What you have really given me 
is yourselves. You have given me your affection, your 
sympathy, your interest, your responsive greeting, and I 
feel that the labour of life is cheered, and that the work of 
life is rewarded, in receiving the communion and fellowship 
of so many kindred souls. 

To me, in more senses than one, your gift measures 
time. It takes me back to the days when I stood amongst 
you an untried, inexperienced youth, not perhaps illiterate 
as to what is called the lore of universities, but altogether 



202 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



unread in that noblest of all studies — the book of human 
nature. To you, ladies and gentlemen, am I indebted for 
this crowning knowledge ; it is I, this night, that should 
be the donor and you who should be the receivers. It was 
in union with your joys and sorrows, it was in sympathy 
with your summer and winter hours, that I first learned 
that greatest lesson of humanity — the need of man for 
man. It was in the dawning of that new interest which 
made your cares my responsibilities, that life itself woke 
into reality, into solemnity, into joy. Need I say that the 
chain you have woven round me is one that can never be 
severed. No change of locality could sever it ; it no longer 
belongs to any locality, it is a fact of the spirit. The 
associations of our youth are like Tennyson's brook — Men 
may come and men may go, but they keep on for ever. 
Youth fades, times change, prophecies fail, forms of know- 
ledge vanish away ; but the loves of our early years, the 
friendships of our morning's glow, are photographed in our 
hearts in beams that cannot die, and keep their fadeless 
bloom when suns have set: such a remembrance will I 
have of you. 

Matheson's intellectual interests began about 
this time to take a new direction, or, more correctly 
speaking, to flow in a fresh channel. He had for 
the time being exhausted all he had to say on the 
great questions of speculative theology. He had 
discussed religion from the point of view of 
philosophy, and he now felt called upon to treat 
it in relation to science. In his three important 
works up to this date — Aids to the Study of 
German Theology, Growth of the Spirit of 
Christianity, and Natural Elements of Revealed 
Theology — he had endeavoured to expound the 
development of religion in its threefold aspects as 
a necessary process in the mind of man, in its 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 203 



visible manifestation in the Christian Church, and 
as it had revealed itself on the larger plane of 
universal experience. The recent trend of scientific 
thought put a stop for the moment to his buoyant 
flight, and brought him to the earth by the startling 
question, What if the religious instinct itself be but 
a mere dream, and human belief and man's specu- 
lation on divine things be but empty shadows ? 
The doctrine of evolution, which had now received 
a twofold exposition, first by Darwin on its scientific, 
and secondly by Herbert Spencer on its philo- 
sophical side, appeared to hold the field, and to 
confine man within the bonds of nature, and to 
control him by inviolable laws. 

Matheson, even previous to this date, showed 
keen interest in scientific pursuits and discoveries. 
His friend Dr. Sime, who had also a lively interest 
in such matters, used to discuss them frequently 
with him. He says : 

He was deeply interested in scientific study. 
Archaeology, anthropology, and prehistoric humanity 
constituted a very frequent subject of thought and talk. 
The worship of a mere boulder, or block of stone, so 
characteristic of savages to this day, was of deep 
significance to him, and an indication of the intrinsic 
difference between man and beast. When man came, 
wonder and worship came. " The prehistoric man," he 
used to say, " did not bow down to worship the block of 
stone any more than does the modern savage. That is a 
weak, even an absurd, deduction of the good, well-meaning 
missionaries. He knew that as a lonely, weird boulder it 
stood on the moor or headland in his father's, his grand- 
father's, and his great-grandfather's time; he knew that 
it would stand there in his children's and his great- 



204 LAST YEARS AT IN NELL AN 



grandchildren's time. Everything else passed away ; the 
clouds, the leaves, the flowers, the beasts, men, everyone, 
but the boulder remained. As a rugged symbol of the 
permanent in the passing — for even to him there was 
something enduring in the universe — it was his nearest 
conception of God, it was the one permanent thing he 
could see." Again, the revelations of Pasteur in respect 
of micro-organisms and their influence on disease, his 
opening up the new great field of bacteriology, like a new 
avenue into the most secret arcana of nature, and likewise 
Lister's godlike creation of the antiseptic treatment, filled 
him with enthusiasm. Lord Kelvin's works and Huxley's, 
Tyndall's, and Max Miiller's, were also often in his mind. 
His interest in the greatest scientific questions was so 
profound, and so materially did they influence him, that 
in after years he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society 
of Edinburgh. 

Referring to the conversation that took place 
between the late James Sime and Matheson, 
on the evening already spoken of, the doctor 
continues : 

How much these two had to say to each other. 
Agnosticism was discussed, and a good idea of Dr. 
Matheson's talk on the subject may be had in the fine 
article on " Agnosticism," which years afterwards he 
wrote to The Scottish Review. My brother's account of 
Lessing's Education of the Human Race thrilled the young 
poet-preacher, for although the work was not unknown to 
him, its significance in the thought of our own times came 
upon him as a great revelation. Not that he was not 
familiar with some of the works of Lessing, especially 
with Laokoon and Nathan the Wise, the latter of 
which he greatly esteemed as the radiant picture of a 
calm, radiant soul. 

" Why, this essay of Lessing you speak of," I remember 
him saying, " I shall get it at once. It is grand, a poet's 
precursor, the very dawn in purest, sweetest light of 
Hegel's growth, and of Darwin's sublime evolution of life. 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 205 



After all, education does not create any new faculty 
or power, it only educes, brings to light and into action 
what powers are there ; so perhaps it is with evolution." 
It was suggested that for every new type of being in the 
living kingdoms, that for every family or class in the 
vegetable and the animal worlds, that for every rising in 
the scale of life there was a new access of deity, and that 
certainly there was this on the arrival of man in the 
animal kingdom, and on the appearance of every man of 
genius since. My brother liked the suggestion that 
evolution began and still continues from above, not from 
below, like spring from on high awakening the lilies of 
the valley. " My dear fellow," said my friend, turning to 
me, "the highest and most perfect access of deity, and 
which can never be transcended — it is unique — is the 
Christ of Galilee. You are right, evolution begins from 
above, and the Christ is the transcendent beginning and 
end of evolution." 

The incident thus recorded must have taken 

place in the early seventies, for it was before 

Matheson had published anything. For the next 

decade the ideas which began at that time to 

germinate in his mind steadily grew and developed. 

The balance of the serious thought of his day 

towards evolution, and its relation to, and effects 

upon, religious belief, naturally deepened his interest 

in the subject. He had written no book of a 

scientific nature in theology or philosophy since his 

Baird Lecture, and during the five years that had 

elapsed between it and his next important book, 

Can the Old Faith Live with the New ? he made a 

profound study of the doctrine of evolution and its 

bearings on religious belief. The first-fruits of this 

study was the fine article on " Agnosticism," 

referred to by Dr. Sime, which was published in 



206 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



The Scottish Review in 1 883. But more striking and 
significant was the address delivered by him at the 
Pan- Presbyterian Council, which met at Belfast in 
the beginning of June 1884. The subject chosen 
by him for his address was the " Religious Bearings 
of the Doctrine of Evolution." In it we have the 
leading thought of all he ever afterwards wrote on 
the subject. His delivery of the address made 
a deep impression. As a token of its power and 
eloquence certain of the Scottish newspapers did 
it the honour of publishing it almost in full. No 
similar tribute was paid to any of the other 
speakers, though among them were Drs. Hodge 
and SchafT, and other leading lights of the Presby- 
terian Church. A correspondent thus describes 
the occasion : 

" The most interesting appearance yet made by 
any member of Council has been that of Dr. Mathe- 
son of Innellan. Unable, from his affliction of total 
blindness, to read the paper on Evolution which 
stood in his name, Dr. Matheson asked and 
obtained leave to expound the gist of it verbally ; 
and for much more than the usually allotted time — 
twenty minutes for each paper — he held the Council 
in delighted attention to one of the most lucid and 
eloquent philosophical expositions we ever heard. 
Dr. Matheson sat down amidst a tempest of 
applause, again and again renewed." The late 
Professor Lee of Glasgow, who was present, 
declared : " None of us will ever forget the intel- 
lectual treat experienced in that admirable, and, in 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 207 



many respects, wonderful address on Evolution, 
delivered by a neighbour of my own, Dr. Matheson 
of Innellan." And the late Professor Calderwood 
expressed the unanimous feeling of the audience 
when he said : "The Council all feel that God has 
closed your eyes only to open other eyes, which 
have made you one of the guides of men. Your 
speech to-day was a perfect guide to the Council." 

Dr. Robertson Nicoll, who was present at 
the meetings of the Council, and who was also a 
fellow-guest with Matheson, gives the following 
impressions : — 

My first meeting with Dr. Matheson will always be 
memorable to me. It was at the Pan-Presbyterian Council 
in Belfast, held, I think, in the year 1884. We were the 
guests of the late Rev. Dr. William Johnston and Mrs. 
Johnston, and we had as fellow-guests the late Rev. Dr. 
William Wright of the Bible Society and his wife. Our 
host and hostess made a very notable couple. They had 
no children, and they were at the head of the magnificent 
orphan scheme carried on by the Presbyterian Church of 
Ireland. By this every Presbyterian orphan child in 
necessity is taken care of. Dr. Johnston had also a very 
large congregation, mostly of the working class, and was 
particularly active as an ecclesiastical and philanthropic 
leader. His wife, a lady of very marked ability, was his 
right hand in everything. Never have I seen such days 
of strenuous work, beginning when the post arrived with a 
huge number of letters, and never closing till midnight. 
It was an education to live with them. Dr. Matheson 
came with a great reputation, and amply sustained it at 
the Council. In the house he immediately became a 
favourite with everyone. I shall never forget his hearty 
interest in all that went on within and without. He 
strenuously attended the meetings, and brought back the 
most vivid impressions of them. What struck me most 



208 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



was his keen sense of humour, and his delicate perception. 
You were always forgetting that he was blind. He 
seemed to know who were in the room and where they 
were sitting. Mrs. Johnston was in delicate health, and 
unable to attend the meetings of the Council, and Dr. 
Matheson very thoughtfully and sedulously set himself to 
tell her everything that had happened. We who were 
privileged to listen saw how he had learned to compose 
mentally. Every sentence he uttered might have been 
printed. His criticism was often keen, but it was always 
kindly. I had the privilege of accompanying him to 
several of the meetings, and was amazed by the acuteness 
with which he summarised and criticised the speeches. 
One speech he disliked. It was made by an American 
professor, and was a defence of verbal inspiration. Dr. 
Matheson took exception to the confident tone of the pro- 
fessor, and thought his arguments inadequate. The great 
day of the Council was one on which an American, the 
late Dr. G. P. Hays of Denver, was chairman. At first his 
pronounced Americanism seemed to bode ill for a peaceful 
day, but very soon he established an extraordinary 
dominion over the audience, and poured out such a wealth 
of wisdom and wit as to surprise and delight everyone. 
Dr. Matheson was sitting next me, and at first expressed 
his discomfort and dissatisfaction, but he was soon subdued, 
and then he became radiant. I went home with him, and 
for Mrs. Johnston's benefit he went through the story of 
the day. His memory was truly marvellous, and his 
power of imagination. I shall never forget the helpless 
laughter to which we were all reduced by his reproductions 
of Dr. Hays' racy anecdotes. Dr. Matheson himself laughed 
more heartily than any of the rest. It was truly a good 
evening. On another night he was intensely pleased with 
a speech by Dr. Stalker in favour of a more ornate and 
elaborate ritual in Presbyterian churches. It was a bold 
thing to make the speech, for at that time the Presbyterian 
Church of Ireland was discussing with some keenness 
the use of organs in public worship. Dr. Matheson was 
heartily in sympathy with Dr. Stalker, and said that the 
arrangement and expression of his speech could not have 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 209 



been improved. He searched for an adjective to describe 
the speech, and found rest at last in the word Aristotelian. 

I had an opportunity of some private conversation on 
theological questions with Dr. Matheson. He said that 
he had been a strong Evangelical, and was so still, but that 
he was now very decidedly in sympathy with Broad 
Churchism. I do not think he went so far in that 
direction as he supposed, for he spoke in warm praise of 
Dr. Liddon's lectures, entitled Some Elements of Religion. 
In particular he praised the lecture on Prayer. He left 
the impression on my mind of a singularly noble, beautiful, 
and unselfish personality. He did everything he could to 
keep his blindness out of sight so that it might not weigh 
on anyone's spirits, and he succeeded so well that it was 
only on occasion that one became aware of how much he 
was missing. His was a truly valiant and indeed heroic 
spirit. I will only add that I had many occasions to 
remark Dr. Matheson's great gratitude for trifling kind- 
nesses — a gratitude which often seemed much in excess of 
the occasion. He was able to do his work without praise, 
but the friendship and recognition of his fellow-workers 
was precious to him, and, staunchly attached as he was 
to the principles of his own Church, his spirit was most 
catholic and wise. 

The address, which was afterwards published in 
the Transactions of the Council, blunts the edge of 
the evolutionist's attack, by declaring in its opening 
sentences that the doctrine of evolution originated 
in the Christian Church itself. The speaker points 
in proof of this to the controversy that arose in the 
first centuries between Creationists and Traduci- 
anists ; the former holding that the soul of man came 
into the world at birth by a separate act of creation, 
the latter holding that the soul of each man was 
derived at birth from the essence of the soul of his 
parents, and that therefore all souls were originally 
14 



210 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



included in a single life — the primeval Adam. The 
traducianist's view was clearly the very principle of 
the modern doctrine of evolution, the reduction of 
the many to the one, a view which the Church 
maintained to be on the whole more orthodox than 
the other. Having thus shown that the new idea 
which the doctrine of evolution had introduced into 
the thought of the day was in reality an old doctrine 
of the Christian Church, he proceeds to discuss the 
conception of force and its relation to matter, and 
in a lucid piece of argumentation shows how the 
belief in the Divine Spirit, which was of the essence 
of the Christian faith, was a more intelligible view 
of the genesis and development of nature and of life 
than the inscrutable Force of the evolutionists. In 
any case, that there was nothing in modern scientific 
belief which could be regarded as contradictory to 
the fundamental principles of the Christian religion ; 
in fact, that these principles, worked out on evolu- 
tionary lines, give a more rational view of the world 
than the Spencerian philosophy. Matheson ac- 
cordingly, while neither accepting nor rejecting 
evolution as a fact scientifically proved, welcomed 
the ideas which it embodied as aids to the study 
and better understanding of the Christian religion. 

In the following year, the spring of 1885, 
Matheson published the most important of his 
books hitherto, Can the Old Faith Live with the 
New ? or, the Problem of Evolution and Revelation. 
I remember meeting him a month or two before 
its appearance. He was in the most cheerful of 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 211 



moods, and told me about his new book, which had 
just been accepted by Blackwood. This was the 
first occasion on which he had been brought into 
business relations with the famous Edinburgh 
house, and he felt not a little pleased at his work 
being so readily accepted by it. He was full of the 
subject, and I was deeply impressed by his attitude. 
He struck me as a man who had achieved a 
triumph, who had overcome some great difficulty, 
and felt the increased power which his victory 
gave. 

Matheson's position in relation to the doctrine 
of evolution as discussed in his book is very 
characteristic. He does not commit himself to 
it ; he expresses no opinion as to the validity 
of the doctrine ; his sole object is to inquire, If 
the doctrine be true, what then? He differs in 
this respect from two important books which he 
declares stimulated his attempt ; that of Mr. Joseph 
John Murphy on the Scientific Bases of Faith, and 
that of Professor H. Drummond on Natural Law 
in the Spiritual World. " Both of these books," as 
he remarks, " are in their nature constructive ; their 
aim is to build a faith on the acceptance of the 
modern doctrine of evolution." He, on the other 
hand, pronounces no opinion on the validity of the 
doctrine ; his purpose is purely analytic. He places 
evolution side by side with those doctrines of 
revelation which seem to come into contact with it, 
and seeks impartially to consider the question, How 
the adoption of the former would affect our accept- 



212 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



ance of the latter? In the opening chapters he 
considers the scientific value of the religious senti- 
ment in general. He felt compelled to do this, 
seeing that natural evolution is supposed to involve 
religious agnosticism. He accordingly discusses 
the place for faith in the system of nature, whether 
the object of faith is knowable, and the conditions 
requisite to Divine knowledge. In the subsequent 
chapters he treats of the special doctrines with 
which evolution comes directly into touch, and 
considers how, if at all, it affects them. These are 
" Creation," " Special Creation," the " Divine Origin 
of Life," " Primitive Man," " Providence," "The 
Second Adam," the " Work of the Spirit," " Divine 
Communion," and " Immortality." 

Matheson's book was opportune. It fell upon 
a public ready to welcome it. The subject had 
been gradually assuming large proportions, and the 
faith of many was distressed. Darwin was being 
out-Darwined, and many scientific men, without 
the caution of the author of The Origin of 
Species, were driving his ideas to extremes that 
seemed dangerous to religious belief. Apologists 
of Christianity were taking their place in the field ; 
and the press, the pulpit, and the platform rang 
with the war-cries of the opposing schools of 
thought. It was freely admitted at the time, and 
it has never been denied since, that Matheson's 
book was the most important contribution made to 
the controversy up to the date of its publication. 
And this was the opinion of both sides. Its 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 213 



breadth of view, its freedom from dogmatism, its 
cordial recognition of the position of the evolu- 
tionist as well as of the religionist, its grasp of 
fundamental principles, its intimate knowledge of 
the points in dispute, its keen logic and its urbane 
spirit, caused it to be welcomed by every party and 
to secure a hearing in every quarter. Its value as 
a contribution to the subject in dispute consisted in 
the simple, yet far-reaching, fact, that even though 
evolution, as rationalised in the philosophy of 
Herbert Spencer, were accepted, it would not in 
the slightest degree invalidate the doctrines of the 
Christian religion, which it was supposed to 
destroy. On the contrary, that these doctrines 
shone more luminous in the light of the ideas 
which the new age introduced, and became more 
pregnant of Divine meaning because of them. 

Matheson in this book, as in most of his other 
writings, was true to his own spirit. His work in 
the world was that of a great reconciler. He had 
already in the sphere of theology done his part in 
bringing into intelligible relationship the conflicting 
creeds of mankind. He had now started on a new 
enterprise, and aimed at bringing under one great 
idea religious thought and scientific discovery. 
Here we have the true Christian Theist ; and 
Professor Flint in his article on " Theism," in 
the Encyclopedia Britannica, elaborates and con- 
firms this position. The Christian idea of God is 
flexible and comprehensive enough to find room 
for truth, from whatever quarter it may come. 



214 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



Every new fact is unintelligible until it is related to 
this idea ; this idea itself is imperfect until its 
content is enriched by every new fact. If evolution, 
then, has made discoveries, why should the scientist 
be arrogant or the Christian be afraid ? Matheson's 
book was an answer to this question, and it con- 
tributed not a little to that mutual understanding 
between science and religion, the first-fruits of 
which Matheson saw before he died. 

The reception given to the book was hearty 
in the extreme. Long reviews of it appeared 
in the more important literary organs of opinion. 
Objections here and there were taken to de- 
tails, but the book as a whole was accepted as 
of the first rank. Matheson's position was now 
thoroughly established. He was only in his forty- 
third year, and although he might attain fresh 
triumphs, these could only add to a reputation 
already great. 

His name now began to be a familiar one in 
the highest quarters. Among his admirers was 
Lord Tennyson. He appreciated in his writings 
profound thought set forth in picturesqueness of 
phrase, and imaginative beauty balanced withal by 
intense practicality. This union of qualities, usually 
severed, commended his writings to the poet. An 
interesting letter from the late Duke of Argyll to the 
Rev. Dr. MacGregor of St Cuthbert's, Edinburgh, 
bears on this point. It was written a year or two 
after the publication of his book, Can the Old Faith 
Live with the New? but it is more than likely 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 215 



that it is the volume referred to in the letter. One 
may feel some surprise at the Duke being ignorant 
of so near and so distinguished a neighbour of his 
own, and one who had just written on a subject 
with which he himself was so familiar. But even 
so universal a man as the Duke could not be ex- 
pected to know everyone and everything : 

Argyll Lodge, Kensington, 
August 3, 1888. 

I have been to see old Tennyson — soon to enter his 
eightieth year — yet writing as beautifully as of yore. I found 
that the Bishop of Ripon had lately been on a visit, and as 
the poet is an omnivorous reader, he had recommended, 
among other books, some by Dr. Matheson of Innellan, of 
whom I had never heard before. I saw one of his books 
on Tennyson's table, and his son told me it seemed a 
strong book. Tell me all you know of Matheson, who I 
hear is a friend of yours. 

The final crown to his reputation was still to 
come. It was the ambition of ministers of the 
Established Church of Scotland, during the reign 
of the late Queen Victoria, to be invited to Balmoral 
to preach before Her Majesty. Ever since the day 
when Dr. Norman Macleod and Principal Tulloch 
won her confidence and esteem by their large- 
heartedness and simple presentation of Christian 
truth, Queen Victoria had a liking for the Church 
of Scotland and its ministers. It was her custom 
to summon to Balmoral during her residence 
there the more noted of the clergy of the Estab- 
lished Church, in order that they might conduct 
the service in the Parish Church of Crathie on 



216 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 

the Sunday, or, should Her Majesty prefer it, in 
the Castle itself. In most cases names were 
submitted to the Queen for her approval, and by 
her command the clergyman selected was invited to 
appear. In rarer instances she suggested the name 
herself, and this was the case with Dr. Matheson. 
It was by her unsolicited royal command that he 
preached before her at Balmoral. No one of her 
subjects had passed through so many sorrows. 
She bore the burden of a great Empire, she also 
carried the weight of her own personal griefs. 
Without the consolation of our Holy Faith she 
would have been unable to bear up as bravely as 
she did under the many trials that she was called 
upon to endure, and it was with unfeigned gratitude 
to the author that she welcomed those meditations 
of Dr. Matheson's which had been placed in her 
hand by the Bishop of Ripon, and in which she 
found the consolation that her soul needed. It 
was in October of 1885 that Dr. Matheson was 
summoned to Balmoral, and in a letter to his friend 
Mr. Stevenson he gives an interesting account of 
the occasion : 

Manse, Innellan, 
October 31, 1885. 

My dear Stevenson, — My visit to Crathie has been 
a tremendous success, though I write with considerable 
reserve as I should much prefer to have stated the facts 
orally. The Queen sent word after the sermon that she 
was immensely delighted with the preaching and the 
prayers, the word " immensely " being underlined. She 
stated through Lady Ely, who gives her orders, that she 
desired me to be presented to her and to the Royal Family 



LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 217 

at a quarter-past ten in the evening, and that as I was 
unable to see her with the eye she and the Royal Family 
would shake hands with me. She has presented me with 
a little bust of herself, and she has requested that the 
sermon should be printed for private circulation and sent 
to her that she may have the thought beside her. She 
says that she never understood the subject before. She 
requested that I would send her a letter in my own hand ; 
this, however, I have declined to do. When I came into 
the room she came forward, took my hand, saying, How I 
admired your sermon, most beautiful and most interesting. 
She asked all manner of questions regarding Innellan, its 
situation, population, etc. I afterwards conversed in turn 
with the Duke of Connaught, the Duchess of Connaught, 
and the Princess Beatrice. These are all the facts which 
I can put on paper, but they will serve to show you that I 
have received an almost unprecedented distinction. I may 
say that among the Royal Household there are many 
applications for a copy of the sermon, which is now being 
printed. — Believe me, yours very sincerely, 

G. Matheson. 

The sermon which he preached on the occasion 
was on " The Patience of Job," from the well-known 
text James v. 2. It is a most beautiful sermon, 
and one on reading it can well understand how it 
appealed so strongly to his Royal hearers. The 
point of the discourse is the thought, fresh and 
original, that the patience of Job consisted in his 
endurance of the repeated and overwhelming 
calamities that befell him, without asking, Why ? 
It was only when his would-be friends endeavoured 
to trace the dealings of Providence, and to find the 
motive of God's anger in Job's transgressions, that 
he cried out. But the Patriarch's outburst, the 
preacher declared, in place of being a denial was 



218 LAST YEARS AT INNELLAN 



only an additional proof of his patience, for it 
was an outburst, not against his . calamities or 
against Him under whose hand they befell him, but 
against those who set themselves as judges over 
man and his Maker. This standing with an un- 
covered head before the mystery of life and saying 
nothing, this acceptance of suffering which could 
not be explained without a murmur, this undying 
faith in God in the midst of troubles whose source 
and whose meaning were a mystery, was an 
exhibition of patience which was once paralleled 
only in the history of the world — in the death of 
the Son of Man on Calvary. The Patriarch's 
cry of " Though He slay me yet will I trust 
in Him " was an anticipation of the Saviour's 
prayer, " If it be Thy will let this cup pass 
from Me, yet not My will but Thine be done." 
" Stand, then, where Job stood," concluded the 
preacher, 

under the shadow of Gethsemane, side by side with 
the Son of Man. Keep green thy love with His love. 
For remember that, after all, the patience of Job is the 
patience of hope. Wherever love is, there is no despair. 
There is a withered peace, a stoic peace, a peace of autumn 
leaves ; a peace where rustling ceases, not because the 
winds have lost their power but because the life has lost 
its sap. That is not the patience of hope ; it is the 
patience of despair. But if love be there, — His love that 
under the shadow could keep the heart undimmed, that 
under the wintry sky could preserve the summer foliage 
green, — then come what may, though cloud rise on cloud, 
and night come down without a star, already above the 
heights of Calvary there shall gleam the sunlit peaks of 
Olivet, and beyond the vale of death shall shine the glory 



LAST YEARS AT 1NNELLAN 219 



of the resurrection day. Love is the prophecy that the 
night is not eternal, and he that listens to love amid the 
cold hears already the song of the swallow that tells that 
summer is nigh, for the patience of Job is the patience of 
hope. 



CHAPTER IX 

THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 

A devoted member of the Parish Church of 
Innellan expressed the fear, when in 1883 Dr. 
Matheson received a presentation from his con- 
gregation, that it was fated he should not remain 
long among them. As anticipations often arise 
from contradictories, she said that this fear was 
caused by Dr. Matheson's own words, when he 
declared that he would continue for the remainder 
of his life as their minister. He no doubt at the 
time believed this. He had never sought a 
change. He was contented and happy in his 
work. He felt that the sphere in which Pro- 
vidence had placed him was perhaps the one above 
all others specially suited for him. He might have 
been in an equally easy charge in some country 
district, but he would have been without the 
stimulus which came from the inroad of summer 
visitors, who latterly were drawn from every part 
of the United Kingdom. He was within easy 
access of the social life and literary opportunities 
of Glasgow, with its University and libraries. 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 221 



Besides, he belonged to the West of Scotland, and 
he felt thoroughly at home among its people. In 
a true sense he was prophet, priest, and king of his 
parish, and he ruled by the spirit of sacrifice, which 
formed the special note of his preaching and his 
life. He toiled incessantly in the interests of his 
congregation and of the larger public who enjoyed 
his writings, and as he never went beyond his 
province, so no one dreamed of invading his. His 
life indeed at Innellan was one of pleasantness and 
peace. 

It cannot be said, however, that he had no 
visions of a larger field on which he might play his 
part. He had become conscious of his power and 
his influence, and, having a message, he naturally 
longed to have it delivered to those who, in their 
turn, might spread it far and near. Had he been 
an author only, he might have contented himself 
with the platform which Innellan supplied. But 
he was a man of action as well. He rejoiced in 
coming into contact with other minds, in ex- 
changing ideas, in discussing questions of far- 
reaching interest, in seeing his views carried out 
into practice ; above all, he was a born preacher, 
whose chief joy was in communicating his 
thoughts by the power of his eloquence to the 
minds of men, and moving their hearts by his 
fervid appeals. No one was more susceptible to 
the influence of numbers. He could feel a crowd, 
and a large congregation drew from him his very 
best. His childlike nature revelled in the play of 



222 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



thoughts and words which were rendered possible 
by mingling with masses of people ; and it was 
only in some great centre of population where the 
whole man could find fit expression. 

Those who knew him, therefore, were not 
altogether surprised when they heard that he was 
not unlikely to accept the call which was to be pre- 
sented to him from a large Edinburgh congregation. 
The movement was in some respects a surprise. 
It came upon all who were concerned in it as a 
thief in the night. Even those from whom it 
issued had never meditated calling Dr. Matheson, 
until by accident almost it was told them that he 
might not altogether refuse their overtures. The 
reason, probably, why so many congregations, to 
whom Dr. Matheson would have made a most 
acceptable minister, never thought of inviting him, 
was simply because it never dawned upon them 
that he would be willing to accept a call. They 
had the impression that he was so contented at 
Innellan that no inducement whatever could 
tempt him to leave it. There was probably 
another reason. They felt that his blindness would 
be a hindrance to him in the discharge of the 
pastoral duties of a large congregation. There 
can be no doubt, however, that if he had been a 
minister in the Church of England he would have 
found his proper sphere long before. In the 
Church of Scotland, which is Presbyterian, there 
are no posts for preachers. The minister of a 
charge must undertake all its duties, of which 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 223 



preaching is only one ; and though he should have 
the eloquence of Chrysostom, if he fails in the 
minor tasks he, in the opinion of some, has failed 
altogether. In the Church of England Dr. 
Matheson would have been appointed a Canon in 
St. Paul's Cathedral, and at Lent or at Easter he 
would have attracted great congregations. When 
his term of service there had expired, he would 
have retired to his country living, where he would 
have written his books and prepared himself in 
quietness for his next term of office. 

There is one kind of congregation in the Church 
of Scotland which, it seems to me, would have 
suited Dr. Matheson. A suburban charge in 
connection with which there would have been a 
minimum of congregational and parochial work, 
and centrally enough situated to command a large 
body of hearers every Sunday, would have been a 
fit sphere for him. I remember on one occasion 
asking a leading member of such a church why it 
was when a vacancy had occurred, the members 
did not think of giving a call to Dr. Matheson. 
He said, "Would he have come?" I replied that 
I thought he would. "Well," he exclaimed, "if 
that had occurred to us we would only have been 
too proud to have had him as our minister." But 
it was ordered that his translation from Innellan 
should be to a large congregation, in which the 
demands upon him as a pastor were greater than 
as a preacher. The sequel will show the wisdom 
of the step which he was now meditating. It was 



224 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



a difficult choice. No one, however, should regret 
that he made it. If it was put in his way by a 
Higher Hand for the purpose of testing to the 
very fullest his Christian heroism, George Mathe- 
son did not fail. His spirit was ever willing. The 
victory which he achieved over the circumstances 
of his new lot can only be paralleled by his triumph 
over the catastrophe of his early youth. His in- 
domitable courage enabled him to prevail in both 
instances, and he only yielded when his physical 
frame was unable any longer to endure the strain. 

There is a touch of romance about his call to 
St. Bernards, Edinburgh. The members of that 
church had failed to elect a minister within the 
period of six months, which the law of the Church 
allowed. The right of appointment had fallen into 
the hands of the Presbytery, but, as is usual in such 
cases, the Presbytery was willing to receive sugges- 
tions from the congregation as to whom they would 
like to be elected to the charge. The convener of 
the congregational committee was Dr. Currie, the 
Rector of the Normal School in connection with the 
Church of Scotland. It chanced that some seven 
or eight years previously he had been on a visit to 
Innellan, and on the Sunday he went to hear Dr. 
Matheson. It was a winter's day, and fierce gusts 
of wind were driving the rain against the windows 
of the little kirk. Dr. Matheson preached to a 
handful of worshippers. He was disappointed at 
the meagre attendance, for the sermon which he 
had prepared was a specially good one. There 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 225 



was, however, one stranger in the congregation ; that 
stranger was Dr. Currie, and the eloquent words of 
the preacher made a deep impression upon him. 
When, therefore, St. Bernard's people found them- 
selves in their difficulty, the name of Dr. Matheson 
at once occurred to the convener's mind. He 
remembered his ability in the pulpit, he knew his 
power as an author, and he felt that he was the 
man of all others who should be appointed to 
the charge. The following letter from Dr. Currie 
to a member of the congregation tells how the 
matter came about : — 

Shandon Hydropathic, 
January 26, 1886. 

You may be interested to hear the sequel of our 
proceedings, and the help you gave us in our earlier stages 
fairly entitles you to know. I must say I have found the 
business not a little anxious and engrossing. At the time 
that I wrote you, we were making special inquiry about 
three men, but a meteor came across our sky in the 
person of a minister whom you will know very well by 
name and reputation at any rate. I mean Dr. George 
Matheson of Innellan. It came upon us as a sort of 
revelation that he would be willing to change, and from 
the moment that idea was seriously borne in upon us it 
has carried us captive. Of course there were great 
difficulties to be considered in respect to how a blind 
clergyman could carry on our parish work. We have 
faced these, and, with the information we have been able 
to get of him, we resolved at our committee meeting that 
night to recommend him to the congregation. He 
preached among us on Sunday last, forenoon and after- 
noon, and created an enthusiasm which will probably carry 
him through the ordeal of a congregational election. 
Personally, I go for him heart and soul, for the sake of 
the young people of the church mainly, who cannot resist 
his manly eloquence. I think he will be a power in an 

*5 



226 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



Edinburgh pulpit ; one of those men who appear at 
intervals to shake up our dulness, and to compel the 
attention of the listless and the cynic. It is no disparage- 
ment to our other candidates, and I trust it will not 
appear to them to be any, that the claims of such a man 
should be preferred. Of course there is sometimes a slip 
between the cup and the lip, but from what passed at our 
long interview with him in Glasgow last week, and also 
on Sunday last, I expect that our courtship will end in a 
union. 

The meeting of the congregation of St. 
Bernard's, held for the purpose of hearing the 
committee's report, took place on the evening of 
February 9, 1886, and resulted in a unanimous 
call to Dr. Matheson. The convener, in moving" 
the adoption of the report, expressed the belief 
that Dr. Matheson if appointed would keep St. 
Bernard's as one of the high places of spiritual 
teaching in the city ; and he moved that the 
Presbytery be petitioned to appoint him to be their 
minister. The die had now been cast, and the 
usual formalities took place for the translation of 
Dr. Matheson to his new charge. One of these 
was the severing of the ties that bound him to his 
church and congregation at Innellan. It was not 
an easy matter for pastor and people to part with 
each other ; they both felt the wrench deeply. 
It was only three years since they had in a sense 
renewed their union and exchanged gifts — tangible 
tokens of affection on their part, words of the 
profoundest gratitude on his. But the unexpected 
had happened, and the hour had approached when 
they must part. The congregation, however, were 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 227 



determined to give a final proof of their admiration, 
so one evening, the 13th of April, they gathered 
in full numbers in the Parish Church, and presented 
Dr. Matheson and his sister with handsome gifts. 
Dr. Matheson, in acknowledging the presentation, 
said : 

This has been for me one of the most trying — I should 
say the most trying — day in my life. I have had this day 
to undergo the terrible process of being loosened from 
my charge. I have been loosened from my charge this 
day by the Presbytery of Dunoon, and now I am reminded 
this night that I am being loosened from my church. 
I told the Presbytery of Dunoon to-day that I had 
experienced both their binding and loosening power. 
I had experienced their power of binding nearly twenty 
years ago, when they ordained me to this ministry ; and 
I experienced their loosening power to-day, when they 
gave me permission to go to Edinburgh. I told the 
Presbytery, and I repeat it now, that the power of 
loosening was the more terrible of the two. On my 
ordination to this parish I felt great trepidation and 
fear, but I feel infinitely more now at the time of my 
being loosened from it ; and you have revived in all its 
force this sad feeling by giving us — my sister and myself — 
this double presentation. You have reminded me by a 
tangible token that no loosening power can ever unbind 
those ties — those indelible ties — of affection that subsist 
between us. I have to return you my most sincere thanks 
for this handsome present. The timepiece will be much 
prized by me, and it will always remind me of those 
eighteen years I have spent among you. 

Eighteen years ago I came to you as an old man, 
but now I am leaving you as a young man. This may 
seem a wondrous paradox, but I speak to you in the 
language of the Spirit, not of the flesh. I came to you 
in those days very much afraid, rankled in mind, perturbed, 
and disturbed, for I knew not the way before me. I was 
ignorant then how the duties of this parish ought to be 



228 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 

performed ; you have taught me. I have renewed my 
youth ; I cannot express myself better than to say I 
have grown younger. Do you know, I think the ultimate 
glory of us all is to grow young. I owe to you a debt 
of gratitude which I can never repay. On behalf of my 
sister, I ask to be allowed to say that the work that 
she has done for this place has been, from beginning 
to end, a labour of love. I feel sure that the lessons 
which, during these years, she has learned, must have 
rekindled her youth and made her stronger to continue 
the same work in the new sphere to which she is going. 
In her name I thank you deeply and abundantly for 
this warm token of your appreciation and your regard, and 
I may say — what she would have said had she been per- 
mitted to speak — that she will always cherish this gift 
as a memorial of days which have been to her days of 
pleasantness and of peace. 

Dr. Matheson was inducted to his new charge 
on May 12, 1886, and on the following Sunday 
he began his ministry of thirteen years in St. 
Bernard's Parish Church, Edinburgh; one of the 
richest and most brilliant ministries of which the 
Church of Scotland bears record. He had now 
found his true position, it might be thought, for 
was he not the minister of one of the largest con- 
gregations in the capital of Scotland ? Edinburgh 
has always been regarded as the city of light and 
leading in the northern half of the United Kingdom. 
It was the home of the Scottish kings ; in it sat 
the Parliament, and it still glories in its Law Courts. 
Its historic memories are romantic ; it witnessed 
some of the most stirring events in the national 
history ; and from it issued the commands that 
turned the course of affairs. Its very situation 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 229 



is inspiring, and its picturesque beauty draws to 
it visitors from every part of the world. Its 
ecclesiastical and literary associations, especially 
from the Reformation downwards, are notable. It 
was the city of John Knox, of Principal Robertson, 
and of Thomas Chalmers ; and also of David 
Hume, Walter Scott, and Thomas Carlyle. 
Hundreds of other names of lesser lustre illumin- 
ate its history, and if there was one place more 
than another in which a man of Matheson's genius 
should find a fit sphere it ought surely to have 
been Edinburgh. 

There is no doubt but what he felt the 
stimulating influences of his new surroundings. 
He began his ministry in St. Bernard's in the 
full vigour of a strong manhood. His bodily 
strength was unimpaired, his natural force was 
unabated. He was on the crest of his fame, and 
he felt himself possessed of inexhaustible resources. 
He was master of ancient and modern thought ; 
he had breasted the waves of speculation ; he had 
met and turned the edge of the most recent 
attacks on what was fundamental in the Christian 
Faith. His daily reading and profound study of 
the Bible had given him a knowledge of its mean- 
ing and spirit which enabled him to interpret it in 
the light of the day, and to apply its riches to the 
needs of the hour. His acquaintance with science 
and with literature, ancient and modern, native 
and foreign, made him a man of the broadest 
culture; and his supreme intellectual ability, lit up 



230 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



by flashes of genius, gave him a commanding 
position among the most capable and the most 
learned. Add to these his rare oratorical gifts, 
his charm of style, and above all his sincere, 
warm-hearted nature, and we have surely a preacher 
the like of whom it is not the fortune of every 
generation or of every country to possess. 

Edinburgh responded to the unique personality 
that it now found in its midst. St. Bernard's 
Church became full to overflowing, and Sunday 
after Sunday Dr. Matheson poured forth a stream 
of eloquence that delighted, charmed, and inspired 
the large audiences that came to hear him. " Dr. 
Matheson's fame as a preacher," writes one who 
had the closest personal and official connection 
with him in St. Bernard's, " was so great, that 
every seat was occupied at the morning service, 
and many found only standing room ; in fact, even 
seat-holders had to attend punctually or run the 
risk of being temporarily dispossessed of their 
pews." But the most striking compliment to his 
popularity and power was the character of his 
hearers. "His audience," continues the same 
friend, " was a mixed one, drawn from all ranks 
and classes of society : clergymen, leading members 
of the Bar, University professors, scholars and 
scientists, artisans and workmen ; and whilst he 
himself never despised those occupying good 
social positions, his democratic spirit seemed 
intensely gratified by the fact that the common 
people heard him gladly. Possessed of a well- 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 231 



modulated and powerful voice, he readily gained 
a favourable hearing from every audience ; and if 
some of his propositions were startling on their 
first statement, no one with an open mind left 
without being convinced that every word was 
proved." 

His preaching had developed since the old 
Innellan days. His own character had grown and 
his nature had become enriched. In particular 
his sense of humour and frank outspokenness had 
become a leading trait both of his conversation and 
of his preaching. He restrained himself in writing, 
but when, on the spur of the moment, he had, in 
the pulpit, to express his present thoughts, and 
being so engrossed in his subject as to be altogether 
unconcerned about what was held to be proper, 
or respected as conventional, he frequently gave 
utterance to what surprised many and startled not 
a few. There were two classes of hearers who 
found in Dr. Matheson's preaching the word that 
their souls needed. These were the students of 
Edinburgh, who attended his church in large 
numbers, and those whose faith was distressed — 
men who had given up attending church, and who 
perchance had ceased to believe in God. It was 
surely a Divine blessing to Edinburgh that it had 
in its midst a preacher who could lay his restrain- 
ing hand on both these classes, who could lead 
the wayward thought of ingenuous youth into the 
path of true knowledge, and guide the wandering 
mind of the doubter into the way everlasting. I 



232 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 

have received two contributions, one from each of 
these classes. Let the student speak first. The 
Rev. Sydney Smith, Parish Minister of Keith, who 
attended the classes in Edinburgh University during 
Matheson's ministry in St. Bernard's, writes as 
follows : 

To write of Dr. Matheson as a preacher is for me to 
relive some almost ecstatic moments of my life. Again 
and again as I heard him, it is but little exaggeration to 
say that I seemed as it were caught up into the seventh 
heaven, whether in the body or out of the body I could 
hardly tell. It was often in a kind of bewilderment that 
I left the church. The value of every ordinary sensation 
was lowered, and I was alone with the great thoughts and 
profound emotions which the preacher had stirred. 

Sometimes the effect of the whole was pathetically 
modified. One recalls little incidents, half touching, half 
amusing, but to me more touching than amusing, drawing 
one into tenderer sympathy with the preacher, heightening 
the impression made in so far as they reminded one 
forcibly of the victory which he had won in his own 
life. 

For youth, and especially youth as represented at the 
universities, the preaching of Dr. Matheson had peculiar 
charm. It was no uncommon thing, I remember, for a 
student of any denomination on a Sunday morning or 
afternoon to look up another student and suggest a visit 
to St. Bernard's. Nor is it very hard to understand 
wherein for the student-mind the attractiveness of Dr. 
Matheson's sermons lay. His boldness of interpretation 
would not be without appeal to the young man's sense 
of the heroic. The student as a rule is little of a tradi- 
tionalist, and the way in which Dr. Matheson was wont 
to set aside time-honoured exegesis harmonised with the 
radical or revolutionary strain in the student's nature. 
" I have been through all the commentators " was a 
sentence with which he regularly introduced his own 
exposition. Then Dr. Matheson showed respect, even 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 233 



though it might be only the respect of recognition, to 
certain great names in the scientific and philosophic world. 
" Herbert Spencer would call it the vibration of the ether ; 
I would call it the heaving breast of God," is an inter- 
jection which comes back to me. Sometimes he went 
further. It was the annual sermon, if I remember aright, 
of the Primitive Methodist Conference, which was being 
held that year in Edinburgh. The place of meeting was 
what is now the United Free Church Assembly Hall. 
The preacher's text was, " Who are these that are arrayed 
in white robes ? " He portrayed heaven as a vast concert 
hall, and asked his audience to take a sweeping glance 
over it. " Who are these in the centre, ' before the 
throne'?" For answer he quoted part of the text — 
" These are they," etc. " Who are these, and these, and 
these ? " He replied by mentioning different classes of 
Christians. Then he asked, " Who is that man at the 
very back of the hall, the man with the pale thoughtful 
face? That is Spinoza. He has only got an angle of 
the truth, but he is working his way to the front, to the 
centre." And from all parts of the hall there came cries 
of " Hallelujah ! " and " Help him, Lord ; help him, Lord." 

Then Dr. Matheson delighted in the use of biological 
terms to express facts of the spiritual world. Just as 
Professor Drummond in his addresses to students used to 
speak of sin as a microbe, so Dr. Matheson would describe 
Peter's words, " Be it far from Thee, Lord," or the wish of 
the multitude to make our Lord an earthly king, as 
" attempts to arrest His development." Characteristic too 
of the preacher, and attractive to the student because of 
the contrast suggested to his daily fare, were the bold 
metaphors, the illustrations drawn from present-day fiction, 
the apparent spontaneity of much of the thinking, the 
wealth and effortlessness of language, the delight of the 
preacher in his self-expression, the constant element of 
surprise, and the magnetic glow which pervaded the 
whole. One of his daring and unusual figures comes back 
to me as I write. The context I have forgotten, and I 
cannot well explain the impression made, but I can 
remember the emotion which quietly surged through the 



234 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



audience, causing them literally to sway from side to side 
as they heard the words. The preacher was speaking of 
Robert Burns. " They brought the bard up to Edinburgh," 
he said, " and he wouldn't sing, and they had to take him 
back again." 

There is an impression abroad that Dr. Matheson's 
preaching was to some extent deficient in qualities which 
are supreme conditions of appeal — lucidity and ethical 
force. So far from this being the case, almost every 
sermon I heard was a branching system of thought, and 
the preacher's emphasis on the sacrificial love of the 
Cross and the glory of humanitarian service was felt by 
many of us to be a strong moral influence in our lives. 
Yet it is not difficult to understand how numbers of 
people have thought otherwise. When one recalls how 
often the unity of the sermon was more imaginative than 
logical, how sometimes the discourse was formally little 
more than the elaboration of a single figure, one can under- 
stand how for many the sense of all objective truth or rela- 
tion to the real world might be lost, the cord of interest 
snapped, and the impression of the whole destroyed. 
George Meredith has said somewhere that the English 
mind does not take kindly to metaphor. It is even more 
true one would think of the Scottish mind. 

For the rest, while it may be maintained that Dr. 
Matheson's analyses of Bible characters, for example, were 
highly speculative, and the range within which many of 
the truths he discovered appeared true was very limited, 
yet if, as Professor Flint once said, the essence of the 
Gospel is God's love to man, and if the supreme dynamic 
is the answering love of the soul, there were few of Dr. 
Matheson's sermons without an element of evangelical 
and practical power. 

The other, who had wandered from church to 
church, as he himself records, in search of an abid- 
ing place for his soul, chanced to alight at last on 
St. Bernard's. He there found what he needed. 
Matheson's voice appeased his fears, and his 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 235 



presentation of Divine truth won the doubting 
disciple for the Kingdom. The writer, the Rev. T. 
R. Barnett, is now an honoured minister of the 
Christian Church — 

It must have been some time in the year 1890 that 
I first began to attend the morning service at St. Bernard's 
in Edinburgh. I was a most diligent and at the same 
time a most unorthodox church-goer, and during these 
years I must have visited most of the better known 
churches in Edinburgh — Presbyterians of all denomina- 
tions, Episcopalians High and Low, Roman Catholics and 
Jesuits ; seeking sound doctrine in the first, music and 
aesthetics in the second, and information at first hand 
with a variety of sensations in the third. 

But St Bernard's saw me oftener than any other 
church in the city. For here there was something 
which drew me irresistibly back again and again. I now 
know that it was the inspiration of the preacher's per- 
sonality. How well I remember the long walk from 
Merchiston to St. Bernard's on the clear, sharp winter 
mornings, or on dismal, drippy days when even the rain 
did not deter me ! <And the expectations were never 
disappointed. If the day was bright, the preacher used 
the very sunshine to illustrate the Eternal Light ; if the 
day was depressing, he used the gloom to illustrate the 
clouds and darkness of experience, on which he always 
managed, somehow, to pour a radiance of Divine Mercy. 

Dr. Matheson's first prayer was often the finest part 
of the service. And what a prayer it was ! A lifting 
up of the heart and upraising of the spirit, a reaching out 
after God, an outpouring of the soul, like the rapturous 
song of the lark, mounting higher and higher into the 
blue, to find in the limitless skies the satisfaction of its 
whole nature. I confess that it was this first prayer that 
often lifted us up into the Mystic Presence more than 
any other part of the service. How difficult it was to 
keep the eyes closed ! There, upon the high pulpit, was 
the blind poet, with uplifted hand, always reaching out 
and up into his own illumined darkness, as if trying to 



236 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



catch something of the mystery of God and draw it down 
to man. He carried us all up into the heights along with 
him ; and he drew down, for the most commonplace of 
us, something of the transfiguring blessing ; so that, often 
before the rapture of aspiration was over, the eyes that 
watched the blind, praying man in the pulpit had to view 
him through a mist of unconscious tears. How many 
of our preachers draw tears from the eyes of the wor- 
shippers as they pray? Through this man's aspirations, 
God laid His hand on the heart of us all. In other 
churches we could get more sustained eloquence, more 
elaborate theology, more orthodox statements of Christian 
doctrine ; but in this poet-preacher there was the illuminat- 
ing flash of a Divine imagination which revealed the 
beauties of many a hidden truth ; there was an aspiration 
and an inspiration and a spiritual glamour which created 
an atmosphere of worship that infected us all with a 
sense of God's very self. There were three great facts of 
Christian experience which, I can personally testify, Dr. 
Matheson restated for us all. 

The first was the great truth of Reconciliation. In 
those anxious days the doctrine of Reconciliation seemed 
often a very difficult and a very departmental doctrine to 
accept. But Dr. Matheson changed all that for us. He 
lifted a truth out of its provincial connection and showed 
it in its universal bearing. He showed us life in the light 
of the Eternal mercy, until God and man, man and man, 
pain and joy, sorrow and mirth, light and gloom, were all 
made one in the great mystic unity of God's Love. And 
then he taught us to have the patience of faith to believe 
in the Great End of God, when man would see, as by a 
vision in retrospect, that all things had been working 
together for good. 

Then another great foundation fact of his preaching 
was the perfection of man through suffering. He shed 
many a ray of light on the mystery of pain. He taught 
us that God meant us to overcome the pains of life, not 
by avoiding them, but by taking them to our hearts and 
passing them through our souls. We were to conquer 
all enemies by conquering all our enmity to them. We 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 237 



were to look upon pain as a friend (disguised), to be 
received, not as an enemy to be shunned. Man was u 
made by God to become perfect through sufferings, not 
to be made perfectly free from sufferings. 

And most of all, I think, he showed us a new way of 
Faith. I well remember that it was a blind man who 
made me see, most vividly, that there is no contradiction 
to Faith in Reason. Reason and Faith were twin-sisters, 
only Faith was ever one step in advance of Reason, * 
whom she nevertheless held firmly by the hand. It is 
with a distinct sigh of relief that the seeker after truth 
finds, for the first time, that Faith has nothing to fear 
from Reason. And this was a very favourite subject 
with Dr. Matheson. Faith, to him, was that sense of the 
soul which transcends Reason. It was the sense in man 
which made him fly to God, as the lark flies to the 
morning. 

All this was Dr. Matheson's best gift to the distressed 
in faith who came to hear him preach. He had been in 
the depths himself; yet this man, who had fought his 
doubt and conquered it, infected men with his magnificent 
faith. He lifted them up to God. He taught them to 
look upon the world as one vast unity in God's sight. 

And yet it was not the least compliment which we 
paid to him that we sometimes did not agree with him. 
He was an erratic as well as an inspired preacher. Some- 
times we smiled at his irresistible thrusts of humour, at 
his extravagant flights of imagination, at his wayward 
interpretation of Holy Scripture. But no one who possessed 
in the very slightest degree the imaginative sense, would 
ever have dreamed of misunderstanding him. He was, 
above all things, suggestive. In those past days he was 
to me a blessed star of guidance, and but for him many 
of the deep truths of life, which it is now my duty to 
preach to others, would have had less meaning to me, and 
to them, if it had not been for those student days when 
I sat in a pew at St. Bernard's. 

On the eve of leaving Edinburgh for my first assistant- 
ship in Glasgow, I sat down and wrote him a letter of 
thanks, from my own heart to his. And while it is a 



238 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



deep privilege to be able to set down this small testimony 
to one who opened the eyes of many an inquiring soul, 
it is also with pleasure I add the letter which he wrote 
in reply to mine — a letter which, at the time, sent me on 
my way rejoicing, and which I have ever since kept as a 
precious memento of one who was to me a light in the 
darkness : 

19 St. Bernard's Crescent, Edinburgh, 
January 10, 1893. 

My dear Sir, — You do not ask an answer and I know 
you desire none, but I cannot forbear just dropping a 
single line to tell you how deeply I am touched by your 
singularly beautiful and manly letter. It is such a letter 
as would atone to any minister for years of obloquy and 
seasons of neglect, and any man who received it might 
go to his grave with the proud and grateful consciousness 
that his work had not been in vain. To light one torch 
which itself is destined to be a torch to others, is as much 
as any minister can desire. — With all the sympathy of a 
kindred nature, 

Believe me, my dear sir, yours very sincerely, 

George Matheson. 

Strangers on a visit to Edinburgh flocked in 
large numbers to hear Dr. Matheson. American 
tourists in particular made a point of attending St. 
Bernard's. His books had been carried across the 
Atlantic, and several of his devotional volumes were 
greatly prized in the sister continent. Many of 
these tourists were clergymen of distinction, and 
several of them contributed a sketch of the poet- 
preacher to one or other of their magazines. The 
following, by the Rev. Charles Parkhurst, gives the 
best account I have seen of Dr. Matheson's appear- 
ance and manner of preaching at this time. 
" Spending a Sunday in Edinburgh, our first 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 239 



inquiry," he remarks, "was for Dr. George 
Matheson. 

This was occasioned by the fact that his book, 
Moments on the Mount, had fallen into our hands a year 
ago. We were greatly charmed and helped by the book ; 
it was so devout, original and fresh, in its exegesis. To 
our inquiry, Who is Dr. Matheson? we could get no 
answer. We could only learn that he preached at 
Edinburgh. Great was our surprise to learn that he was 
totally blind, and had been all his ministry. This excited 
our curiosity and desire to hear him. At an early hour, 
therefore, with unwonted curiosity and expectation, we 
are in his church. Of the intelligent usher we make 
many inquiries, which are cordially answered. Dr. 
Matheson has been with them one year. The church 
had taken on new life and activity in his pastorate. It 
was with difficulty now that seats could be secured on 
the Sabbath for those who pressed to hear him. He was 
a most excellent pastor, spending the greater part of each 
afternoon calling throughout his parish. 

We are anxiously awaiting the coming of the preacher. 
What a quaint church is this ! It is the old box-pew, 
very poorly cushioned, and if the architect had planned 
to make the seats as uncomfortable as possible, he could 
not have succeeded better. There must be some unusual 
attraction to bring people to such seats as these. We 
should never come but once, unless the pulpit had so 
much of intellectual and spiritual vitality as to make us 
forget where we were. A high gallery runs clear round 
the church. The bell has ceased to toll, but the people 
are still coming, and we are compelled to sit closer 
together to make room for those who desire seats. On 
a greatly elevated position in front is a small pulpit, not 
larger than a flour-barrel, with only room for one person. 
Above it is a sounding-board, the like of which we have 
once seen in America. Behold ! a rear door opens, and 
in comes our long-looked-for preacher. Have we been a 
long time in introducing him ? Well, it seemed a long 
time before he came ; perhaps because we were so anxious 



240 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



to see him. We have desired that you should be thus 
anxious ; but he does not look as we had fancied. We 
thought at first it could not be he, but an unfortunate 
exchange ; but we are assured by the stranger at our side 
that it is indeed Dr. Matheson. We confess to strong 
likes and dislikes. We rather enjoy having our favourites 
in the pulpit. We had created Dr. Matheson into such 
a one. That he ? Why, we had cast his face into that of 
the typical Scotch student, a Dr. M'Cosh in earlier years, 
but he is not that at all. I should not look for him in the 
pulpit, but on the farm. Forty-five years of age ? He looks 
ten years older. He has the face and form of General 
Grant when the hero of Vicksburg was most stout. Taller, 
however, rather more muscular, yet he makes you think 
most of the man the American people loved so much. 
With full beard and natural open eye, you would have 
not thought that he was blind had you not been so 
informed. 

He has a remarkable congregation in numbers, in an 
indication of intelligence and spiritual sympathy and 
anticipation ; but he does not know it. Can a blind man 
preach with enthusiasm when he must lack the responsive 
help and inspiration which the seeing eye could get from 
such an unusual audience ? Are we to be disappointed ? 
Have we expected too much? We do not believe it. 
The man who can write such a book must have it in him 
to preach. Now he rises, his body swaying a little until 
he gets his equilibrium. Announcing a psalm for alternate 
reading, he takes his verses without the mistake of a word, 
and throughout the whole service, calling for several hymns 
and Scripture references with chapter and verse, he never 
made an error. Of course it was all memorised. Then 
he prays ; and such a prayer ! It seems profane to write 
about it. Two things are evident, however : though his 
visual sight is entirely eclipsed he does " see God," and he 
does see into the souls of his hearers. Like a skilled 
harper, he has touched every string of the human soul and 
made it chime into the ear of God. In that prayer we 
have been to the mount of worship, and we could go away 
content even if we heard no more. It was wonderful the 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 241 



way in which that blind preacher talked with God and 
uttered the aspirations of the people. 

In the afternoon of the same day we heard one of the 
most scholarly of the faculty of the Presbyterian College 
preach and pray, but it was all cold, inapt, unresponsive. 
The thoroughness with which Dr. Matheson apprehended 
the life of his people, their struggles, sorrows, defeats, 
victories, and his almost superhuman sympathy with such 
actual life, was the most remarkable characteristic of the 
man. For forty minutes he preached on the text, " Holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy 
Ghost." Though we undertook to make a full abstract of 
the sermon, and it lies before us, yet so faint and imperfect 
is our negative of that discourse that we will not do this 
great man, so little known as yet in America, the injustice 
here to produce it. Such a sermon is never forgotten. 
Much that we had often vaguely felt he expressed. It 
was not metaphysical nor controversial. He never said 
anything about different theories of inspiration. He just 
showed how natural it was for God to reveal Himself in 
His word, just as He has done, and how each personality 
through which it came, like David, John, James, Paul, 
retained his identity and his peculiarity. The whole range 
of illustration in art, science, history, and in practical life, 
was touched with the familiarity of the master in each 
department. We were instructed, refreshed, inspired. 
God has given that faithful man, with his studious habits, 
his pastoral nurture and sympathy, an immense equivalent 
for the loss of physical vision. Dr. Matheson is to become 
a special favourite to tourists, who long to have the 
Sabbaths come that they may hear instructive and 
inspiring preaching. 

Hearers of Dr. Matheson, as can be seen from 
the impressions of his preaching just quoted, were 
always struck by the originality, fervour, and 
devoutness of his prayers. Most of his life, indeed, 
was spent in close fellowship with the Father of 
Spirits. His hours of solitude were seasons of 
16 • 



242 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



communion. He never felt himself to be alone, 
and though he could not see the outward world he 
peopled a world of his own with the spirits of just 
men made perfect. All his meditations end with 
a prayer, and so does each chapter of his Portrait 
of Christ, and of his Representative Men and 
Women of the Bible. Even his sermons were not 
infrequently caught up by this spirit of adoration 
into the seventh heavens, and it seemed to be the 
most natural thing in the world, when he was 
carried away on the wings of some Divine thought, 
to find his eloquence culminating in a prayer. It 
was in this form, indeed, that he made his most 
effective appeals. In place of bringing the truth 
home to his hearers, as is the practice of most 
preachers, he brought his hearers home to the 
truth ; carried them up into a region of Divine 
communion, and lifted their souls above the things 
of time and of sense to those which are unseen 
and eternal. Under the spell of his eloquence 
they seemed to see their souls transfigured before 
their very eyes. Like the disciples of old, on the 
Mount of Transfiguration, the prayer of many 
was, "It is good for us to be here ; let us make 
tabernacles." 

Several of his members, who thought that the 
strain under which he was put, not only of preach- 
ing but of giving out the psalms and hymns, of 
reading and commenting upon the lessons, and 
offering up the prayers as well, suggested to him 
that he ought to relieve himself of a part of the 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 243 



service and to ask his assistant to take the prayers. 
They were not aware of the dangerous ground on 
which they were treading. He would much rather 
have given up the sermon than the prayers, for it 
was in those moments of ecstatic communion that 
he carried his hearers to the throne of grace. So 
his reply to the well-meaning petitioners was both 
pointed and characteristic. " Prayer," he said, 
" never causes me an effort. When I pray I know 
I am addressing the Deity, but, when I preach, the 
devil may be among the congregation." 

Another feature of his preaching, upon which 
the majority of those who were in the habit of 
hearing him are agreed, was his power of fusing 
all theological dogmas into the glow of a spiritual 
and moral presentation of Christian teaching and 
truth. Indeed I would find in this the very 
essence of Dr. Matheson's preaching. He taught 
religion, and not any formal or scholastic aspect 
of it. The Christ of history was to him the 
Christ of experience. He was the Lamb slain 
from the foundation of the world ; in Him was 
realised the Divine ideal, and that ideal was the ^ 
goal towards which the human race was striving. 
It was not an ideal of doctrine merely, nor of 
history, nor of tradition, nor of churches, nor 
of priests, nor of creeds, nor of confessions : 
it was an ideal of thought, an ideal of life, an 
ideal which was beneath, and above, and beyond 
any possibility of the mind of man to determine 
by mere symbols. We have, it may be said, in 



244 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



this conception of Christianity the views of a poet 
rather than a theologian. So be it. Relieion 
is not theology. There is far more poetry than 
dogmatics in the teaching of Christ ; and poets, 
as we know, are our greatest teachers. Mathe- 
son had been in the depths. He had found 
how unsatisfactory all purely formal teaching is. 
He had fought his way to the surface, and he 
held the truth as he had found it, through spiritual 
storm and stress, with a tenacity which no power 
could break, and he presented it with an intellect- 
ual conviction, and under an imaginative o-low 
which carried his hearers captive. Under such 
preaching all differences of creeds and churches, 
of faith and reason, of the natural and supernatural, 
of the Here and the Hereafter, of the Divine and 
human, of earth and heaven, vanished ; and listeners 
were lifted into a sphere of Divine fellowship, and 
their souls were wafted into regions of ineffable 
bliss. 

It may be interesting to hear how he impressed 
one who was in close official connection with him. 
The Rev. Marshall B. Lano-, minister of Old 
Meldrum, at one time an assistant to Dr. Matheson, 
writes as follows : 

In the pulpit Dr. Matheson was at his fullest and best. 
Sunday after Sunday new treasures were presented to 
his spell-bound hearers. Old texts shone out with fresh 
meaning, and the common experiences of life became 
glorified under the preacher's poetic imagination. The 
best testimony to his preaching power that I ever received, 
was from an old woman who once lived in a dungeon of a 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 245 



house in Stockbridge, but who informed me that Dr. 
Matheson's sermons had made it impossible for her to 
live in such sordid surroundings. She was thereafter to 
be found in one of the brightest top attics in a new street, 
not far off. One effect of Dr. Matheson's preaching was " 
an increased sense of self-respect. He seldom dwelt on 
the humiliation of sin, but frequently on the exalting 
power of righteousness, and the magnetic influence of the 
person of Christ on the human character. Not unfre- 
quently did he allow humour to lighten and brighten his 
discourses. Describing on one occasion the visit of people 
in different perplexities to St. Paul, who was represented 
as sitting in the study, ready to hear their grievances 
and to answer questions, and after giving imaginary con- 
versations between Paul and members of the Corinthian, 
Ephesian, and Galatian Churches, the preacher suddenly 
stopped, and represented on the pulpit what purported to 
be a low knock at the door of the study. " Come in," was 
twice called out before the door was timidly opened, and 
there entered one who was described to the life, a man 
tall, thin, nervous, and anxious in expression. " Oh, it is 
teetotal Timothy," exclaimed the preacher, " come to ask 
St. Paul if it would be right to take a little wine for his 
stomach's sake." Such vivid imaginative delineations of 
character were listened to with breathless interest, and in 
these graphic portraitures lay much of the preacher's 
power. 

Often he commenced his sermon by telling his people 
that he had had a new revelation on the text chosen. 
Indeed, he told me on one occasion that he never got a 
text without reasoning himself into the belief that it was 
a distinct revelation and contained a message hitherto 
undelivered. Whilst at the beginning of the sermon the 
startling novelty of his interpretation was often apparent, 
sometimes towards the close the listener would find him- 
self gradually led into the old and accustomed way of 
thought, and be surprised or disappointed according to 
temperament. At other times the preacher's method — 
and it was an artful method — was to throw as much doubt 
and darkness upon the text as he could, evolving all the 



246 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



possible difficulties in its reception as truth, and then 
suddenly to lift the text out of its darkness by proclaiming 
the transparent truth contained therein. It seemed often 
as if he inverted the natural way of approach, and led us 
through a back door — with its dark passages, until we were 
suddenly shown out at the front door in the full light of 
day. No one who was a constant hearer can ever forget 
the wholly characteristic habit he had of lifting his 
arms when he "scored a point," or when a sudden 
flash of humour surprised him in speech. On these 
occasions the very eyes that were blind seemed full 
of expression. As when he solved the riddle of the 
name and number of the " Beast " in the Book of the 
Revelation by declaring that its name was " Selfish- 
ness" and its number "No. i," and when he defended 
preachers who were "high" or "low" by affirming that 
there was a worse than either, namely, the preacher who 
was " thin." 

Once when preaching in St. Bernard's he was graphic- 
ally describing the approach of the Philistine army over 
a distant hill. " What is that I see ? " he exclaimed, and 
then depicted the appearance of the army as the sun 
flashed upon their armaments. " What is that I hear ? " 
he further exclaimed, and to this question there came 
a most unexpected response. The congregation had 
been absolutely still in their contemplation of the beauti- 
ful word-picture, but just as this question was asked one 
of the audience in a far-off gallery gave a most un- 
seemly and surprisingly loud sneeze. Whilst his audience 
could hardly refrain from audible laughter, the preacher 
was seen to be as keenly alive as any to the humour of 
the incident, and for a while he withheld the answer until 
the effect of the surprise had gone. 

Mr. Lang's reference to Dr. Matheson's descrip- 
tion of St. Paul in his study, solving the difficulties 
of young inquirers like Timothy, was illustrated in 
the preachers experience. Many, especially young, 
men came to him with their religious doubts. He 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 247 



thoroughly appreciated their position. His attitude 
towards them was most encouraging and sym- 
pathetic, for had he not passed through a similar 
mental and spiritual trial himself? The Rev. Mr. 
Drummond, now at Jedburgh, who, from being 
at one time a member of Dr. Matheson's Bible- 
class, came to be his colleague, bears witness to 
the service rendered by Dr. Matheson in this con- 
nection. He says : 

The minister of St. Bernard's was much more than 
a popular preacher — he was a teacher of religion. In- 
quiring young men, puzzled by the problems of modern 
thought, came asking difficult questions in Christology, 
or about the relation between science and religion, or 
some particular book in the Bible, or some difficult 
doctrine of Christianity. Dr. Matheson always answered 
at once, clearly and fully, as if he were giving a previously 
considered opinion, or as if he had just risen from a fresh 
study of the subject. 

Let me now give a specimen of the way in 
which Dr. Matheson prepared the skeletons from 
which he preached his sermons. Here is one that 
seems to have been a favourite with him. It is 
headed " The Length and the Breadth," and might 
have as a sub-title " Proportion of Character." The 
text is taken from Rev. xxi. 16 : 

The secret of all beauty is proportion. A feature may 
be perfect in itself and yet incongruous ; hence Hawthorne 
makes Donatello not quite Grecian. Distinguish contrast 
from incongruity. Quote the lines, " Now upon Syria's 
land of roses," etc. The union in these lines of summer 
and winter is all right, but it would be all wrong if they 
were transposed in geographical position. A child play- 
ing on a grave is all right; but not a man. The most 



248 THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 



hard thing is to get proportion of character. There are 
littlenesses in great men — for example, Elijah ; and there 
are greatnesses in little men, e.g., the miser at Innellan 
who bore so well the fall of the City Bank. Three types 
of irregularity. First, Men of isolated height, e.g., John. 
They soar aloft and seek a higher world ; but they are 
apt to ignore the claims of length — the walking along 
the prosaic plain of practice, e.g., Samaria. Second, Men 
of isolated length, or the walk along the plain, e.g., James. 
It comprehends the young men who spend their whole life 
in a routine of work, and never raise their eyes to justi- 
fication by faith. Third, Men of isolated breadth, e.g., 
the nameless young man in the Gospel who always 
refused to do what he was desired to do. This type 
rejoices in breadth for its own sake — because it is doing 
a forbidden thing, e.g., skating on Sunday, or promenad- 
ing in Waverley Market. But there is no beauty in 
breadth for its own sake; it must be breadth for the 
sake of height, i.e., not the desire to break a fence, but 
to carry something across the field. 

The city of God has these three elements of proportion. 
Human life leads through each in turn. Its progress 
is marked by the three words, " aloft," " along," " across." 
We begin by seeking the height — a fairer world than ours. 
Youth is the most dissatisfied period. By and by we 
are stopped by some practical weakness in ourselves, and 
we give up trying. Whatever the weakness is that stops 
us becomes to us the only thing in the world to be 
conquered. If it is drink, our gospel becomes teetotalism ; 
if pride, we insist that everyone shall feel himself a poor 
creature. We move along a narrow plank, and admit no 
breadth beyond it. At last there comes a new revelation, 
that our brother and we have not been impeded by the 
same weakness, and we grow broad ; we move across, to 
meet in sympathy his way of salvation. Christ's training 
of the Twelve is directed to bring out one of the three 
elements. Peter is too materialistic. He presses along 
the road of practical action so keenly that he has length 
without height or ideality. Christ takes him up to the 
mount. Apply to those who are withdrawn from the 



THE EDINBURGH MINISTRY 249 

world by illness. John has height or ideality, but he 
wants practice or length of road. Christ sends him to 
cast out devils; God often interrupts our dreams by 
sending us the need for hard work. Paul has both height 
and practice, but at first he wants breadth, e.g., his attitude 
towards circumcision. God sends him the thorn — a 
difficulty in his own sphere of labour. Nothing broadens 
us like trial in our strong-point. Christ includes all 
three — heights of prayer, day of walking, work ; and 
sympathy with aims distinct from His own, e.g., the man 
who would not follow Him. Hence Christ unites the 
guild of humanity. 



CHAPTER X 
PASTORAL AND LITERARY 

" Dr. Matheson has now completed his visita- 
tion of the congregation. Some no doubt have 
been omitted, although the list has been made up 
as carefully as possible. Dr. Matheson would be 
very sorry to pass over any of his congregation, 
and he would be obliged by any in the parish on 
whom he has not called letting him know of the 
omission." Such is the announcement on the first 
page of the Parish Magazine of St. Bernard's for 
December 1886. Dr. Matheson was inducted to 
his charge on the 12 th May of that year, so that 
within the brief period of six months he had visited 
every family in connection with his church. 

To the layman, the fatigue and mental strain 
involved in such an ordeal are quite unknown. 
The congregation of St. Bernard's at this time 
numbered close upon 1500 members. There were 
in addition many seat-holders who were not in 
communion with the congregation ; outsiders, who 
identified themselves with the church solely on 
account of Dr. Matheson's preaching. They also 

250 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 251 



were visited ; so that, altogether, the new minister 
must have paid within the short period mentioned 
not fewer than between five and six hundred calls. 
And all this, be it remembered, in addition to visits 
paid to the sick, to the aged, to the infirm, and to 
the dying. Dr. Matheson at the same time was 
preparing and preaching sermons of the rarest 
quality, attending assiduously to the various 
associations in connection with his church, and 
discharging the numerous demands of a public 
nature that were being made upon him. In 
addition he was busy at work on important literary 
ventures, writing articles for magazines, and keep- 
ing himself fully abreast of the literature of the 
day. No layman, I have remarked, can fully 
appreciate what is meant by a minister of Dr. 
Matheson's temperament paying so many visits 
within so limited a space of time. He was so 
warm-hearted and full of sympathy that every new 
person whom he met in his ministerial capacity 
drew, so to speak, virtue out of him ; made a 
demand upon his spiritual nature which was 
bound to be exhausting. Indeed, I know as a fact 
that the visits that he paid at this time made 
a lasting impression upon his congregation. The 
very expressions which he used were remembered 
by them. He put himself so closely in touch, not 
only with their particular circumstances, but even 
with their special idiosyncrasies, that his words 
were ever cherished. And he was blind. This son 
of genius, whose true sphere, in the opinion of 



252 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



many, was the study on the week day and the 
pulpit on the Sunday, divested himself, with the 
utmost cheerfulness, of his favourite robe and 
clothed himself with the garment of humility. He 
descended to the depths of Stockbridge, visited 
poor widows in sunken areas or climbed to highest 
attics, and with his hearty, sympathetic words 
cheered them in their loneliness and comforted them 
in their sorrow. 

No one ever heard of a minister with his full 
power of vision and with the sturdy limbs of a 
Goliath ever accomplishing a feat like this. The 
vast majority of the clergy make no pretence to 
genius. If they possessed it they might very 
well say, " Such laborious, physical toil can be 
performed by men of lesser mark ; let us confine 
ourselves to our God-appointed task of ministering 
to the intellectual wants of our people on Sundays." 
Matheson, at the time the one minister of genius 
in the Church, thought otherwise. He did not 
even make his blindness an excuse. He visited 
the fatherless, and widows in their affliction, and 
kept himself unspotted from the world. Some may 
have thought that his teaching failed in practicality. 
No one with a spark of his spirit ever believed that. 
His teaching, especially during his St. Bernard's 
ministry, was full of reality. Every sermon almost, 
was an application of Christianity to common life ; 
but, should there be any doubt, his labours during 
his first six months at St. Bernard's ought to be a 
sufficient answer 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 253 



" He was," writes the Session Clerk of St. 
Bernard's, "an indefatigable visitor " ; nor did this 
feature of his ministry belong to his first year in 
St. Bernard's only, it marked his ministry on to 
the time he applied to the Presbytery for a 
colleague. Dr. Matheson perhaps felt himself put 
on his mettle. The great fear on the part of some 
of the St. Bernard's people, with regard to his 
appointment, was that he would be unable to 
discharge the ordinary duties of a parish minister. 
In the case of St. Bernard's these duties were not 
ordinary but extraordinary. The church was 
situated in the north-western part of Edinburgh ; 
the parish included a large working-class element, 
and in it was Stockbridge, a district bordering on 
slumdom. The congregation was thus a mixed 
one. There were a number of well-to-do-families, 
representing the professional and mercantile classes ; 
but the vast majority of the congregation were 
of the artisan order, and under recent ministries 
the church was worked on the " modern " system. 
Organisations were multiplied, agencies were in- 
creased, schemes were set on foot ; in fact, St. 
Bernard's, when Dr. Matheson came to it, was 
a very bee-hive of associations. What such a 
church really required was a manager and not a 
minister, a man of business faculty who could keep 
the concern running, rather than a man of genius 
who could supply ideas for the illumination of 
conduct and of life. The spirit of the church was 
mechanical rather than dynamical, and at the first 



254 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



blush Dr. Matheson was the last man in the world 

who ought to have been appointed its minister. 

Here is the calendar of the various meetings 

of the different Associations in St. Bernard's for a 

single week : 

Forenoon and Afternoon Services, Children's Church, 
Sunday Schools, and Class for Women and Girls on 
Sunday; Evening Work Party, Boys' Carving Class, 
Girls' Club, and Literary Society on Monday ; Mothers' 
Meeting and Sewing Class on Tuesday; Boys' Brigade 
on Wednesday; Choir Practising on Thursday; Savings 
Bank and Boys' Brigade Reading Club on Saturday. In 
addition to these there must not be omitted the Young 
Men's Fellowship Meeting in the Session House on Sun- 
day; the Forenoon Work Party and the Bible Class in 
the Session House on Wednesday ; and the Minister's 
Class for Children in the church after Forenoon Service 
on Sunday ; as well as the Parochial Coal Fund and the 
Flower Mission. The services of the Lady Collectors are 
well known. 

Dr. Matheson achieved many triumphs in his 
day, but the one which he obtained over the 
difficulties that faced him in St. Bernard's seems 
to me to have been his greatest. There are few 
ministers in the Church who would lightly enter on 
such a sphere. The chances of failure would, in 
the vast majority of cases, far outweigh those of 
success ; and yet Matheson succeeded. During 
the first five years of his ministry his communion 
roll steadily increased. In 1886 it was 1494; 
in 1887, 1530; in 1888, 1591 ; in 1889, 1676; 
and in 1890, 1703. The revenue of the church 
increased in similar proportions. I have before 
me, as I write, notebook after notebook filled 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 255 



with addresses, most carefully prepared, which 
Dr. Matheson delivered to the different agencies 
and organisations of the church. These include 
lectures to the Sunday-School teachers ; addresses 
to District Visitors, to the Young Mens Guild, to 
the Young Women's Association, to the Boys' 
Brigade, to the Literary Society, to the Prayer 
Meeting, Mothers' Meeting, etc. etc. An ordinary 
minister would have excused himself from making 
any preparation for such gatherings. He would 
have trusted to the spur of the moment. Not so 
Dr. Matheson. Every address was as thoughtful 
and as appropriate to the occasion as his greatest 
sermons. A selection from them would make a 
fascinating chapter in Homiletics, and would be 
invaluable to the pastor whose chosen sphere was 
the cure of souls. 

There was one body in particular that received 
the very best which he could give them ; that was 
his Bible Class. It consisted of two divisions : 
young men and young women, who met on 
alternate weeks. There were two books which he 
selected for his addresses, the Book of Genesis 
and the Acts of the Apostles ; and he so prepared 
himself for his work that his remarks upon each 
chapter and verse might be published as most 
luminous commentaries on these two portions of 
the Bible. His method combined criticism with 
exposition. The text was elucidated, side lights 
were thrown upon it from history and archaeology. 
The customs of the times were brought in to shed 



256 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



further light upon it. Then followed his own fresh 
interpretation, and its practical application to the 
lives of the young men and young women who 
were listening to him. These lectures formed an 
epoch in the lives of many who heard them. 

A specimen of his Notes on Genesis and the 
Acts of the Apostles may not be unwelcome. Let 
me give his opening remarks, first on Genesis, and 
then on the Acts : 

Chap. i. ver. I. — Explain in what senses Genesis records 
the beginning of things. "In the beginning"; one book 
goes farther back still (John i. i). Exhibit how each of the 
Gospels progressively antedates Christ's genealogy. Give 
the two different views regarding the words, "In the be- 
ginning" — those of Hugh Miller and Chalmers. "In 
the beginning God created " ; His existence is assumed. 
State the four words in which this chapter expresses 
creation — (i) "Created" Gen. i. I, 21, 27; (2) "Made," 
Gen. i. 7 ; (3) " Formed," Gen. ii. 7 ; (4) " Build," Gen. ii. 
22. Catechism makes it creation out of nothing, but 
nothing means no thing. Compare Heb. xL 3. Defend 
the emanation view, illustrating by a candle lighted at a 
fire. This is proved by the fact that everything is referred 
to the breath or Spirit of God. " The heavens and the 
earth"; the heavens before the earth, true to science. 
P.S. — Explain the different words for God. 

The Acts of the Apostles, Chap. i. ver. 1. — "The 
former treatise." Analyse the preface of Luke's Gospel, 
taking up the origin of the Gospels from oral tradition 
and showing how the different parties in the Church would 
each emphasise the facts bearing on their own tendency. 
Show how the four Gospels are coloured by the parties of 
James, Peter, Paul, and Apollos respectively, and describe 
the evangelists by the figures in Ezekiel's vision — man, 
lion, ox, and eagle. "O Theophilus"; the "most ex- 
cellent" in Luke is dropped through greater familiarity. 
" Began to do and to teach." This, Luke's peculiar formula ; 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 257 



he goes to the sources ; it means, " Did and taught from 
the beginning." " To do and to teach." Matthew deals 
chiefly in his teaching, Mark in his deeds, Luke in both. 

This is how Dr. Matheson prepared himself 
for his Addresses to Teachers. The following, one 
of forty or so that I have counted, is based on 
Psalm lxxxi. vers, n, 12, "But My people would 
not hearken to My voice ; and Israel would none 
of Me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' 
lust : and they walked in their own counsels." 

Child's greatest danger is self-will or love of inde- 
pendence. Its origin is not love of self, for self-willed 
people are generally discontented. It comes from 
an intellectual error — the belief that independence 
is manly. This again comes from a false notion, that all 
the grand things in nature are self-acting. Teacher should 
counteract that, should teach the child that there is no 
such thing in nature as a thing hanging upon nothing. 
When we come to man we do find cases of laudable 
independence, i.e., people refusing to be a burden to anyone. 
But teachers should point out that even in these cases we 
only reach independence of one thing, by leaning on 
another thing, e.g., independence of praise comes from 
sense of duty ; fearlessness of man from fear of God. 
Hence if a child should become independent of the bands 
of conscience, verse 12 says it can only be by getting 
entangled in other bands, " I gave them up unto their own 
hearts' lust." Every paltering with conscience does v 
indeed loosen the bond, and teacher should scrupulously 
watch the initial attempts to get this false freedom. 

One of his most characteristic and thoughtful 
addresses bears the following title : — 

Address to "Cat and Dog" Home 

Begin by Goethe's two stages : Christianity first W 
taught the reverence for inferior things — the reverence 
17 



258 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



for man as man, irrespective even of brotherhood. In 
later times the reverence has gone down beneath even 
humanity — to the animal world. Darwinism has preached 
the gospel of a ground of sympathy between man and 
beast. They have a perfect community of nature in the 
possession of one thing — pain. All creation is sympathetic- 
ally united in the sense of want, and whatever creates 
my sympathy becomes thereby my creditor. 

Here is a little sketch of the way in which he 
moved among his parishioners. It relates to the 
year 1893 or I ^94, after he had been seven or eight 
years in St. Bernard's. It throws some light also 
on his labours in other relations, upon the calls 
made upon him in connection with baptismal, 
marriage, and funeral services. These, in so large 
a congregation, were numerous indeed. It does not 
refer to his work in connection with his young 
communicants' classes. No minister ever under- 
took that duty with a more serious consideration 
of its importance than Dr. Matheson, and his 
many addresses, also carefully and thoughtfully 
prepared for these classes, are models of their kind. 
Speaking of his parochial and congregational work, 
the Rev. Mr. Lang, already quoted, says : 

Dr. Matheson, while I was assistant to him in St. 
Bernard's, certainly did not neglect these duties. Baptisms 
were conducted in the church once a month, and frequently 
in his own dining-room. He always used the same form 
of service in baptism, a form of his own, but always the 
same. In my day he also conducted the service at a 
great many of the funerals. His prayer on such occasions 
was most beautiful, and I only wish I could remember 
it correctly. I recollect on one occasion, at the funeral of 
a child, he used some such expressions as the following : — 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 259 



"Sometimes Thou sendest Thine angel when the sun is 
setting and the leaf is ready to fall. At other times, when 
the sun is in its meridian and the flower is in fullest 
bloom. But here Thine angel has plucked a tender bud, 
ere even the sun had opened its petals, and we murmur 
not, for in the sun of Thy love it has opened to the 
perfect day." Such, but very imperfectly recorded, was 
part of the prayer. In the visitation of the sick 
he was always assiduous. One woman told me she 
always felt better when she heard his footstep. His 
cheerful, but wholly sympathetic, manner at the bedside 
was sure to be a tonic. In his interesting prayer he used 
to pray that to the sad and sick there might be given that 
grandly irrational and wholly incomprehensible peace 
which the world cannot give, much less take away. His 
relation to children and his sermons to them were not the 
least striking traits in his rich and many-sided character. 

Matheson had not been long in St Bernard's 
until a movement was set on foot for renovating 
the church. He was to do for his new charge a 
work somewhat similar to what he had done for 
his old one. He was to raise a large sum of 
money. At Innellan his object was to build a 
manse and to endow and erect the church into a 
parish ; at St. Bernard's his purpose was to bring 
his church structurally up to date, to provide some 
necessary accommodation, and to make the whole 
building, with its appurtenances, suitable for the 
service of God and the work of the congregation 
and parish. A sum of two thousand pounds 
was required, and within a year the money was 
raised, the work done, and the church reopened. 
This was in October 1888, after he had been 
minister of St. Bernard's for a little more than two 



260 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



years. This effort, so quick and so successful, is 
a further proof of Matheson's capacity as a man 
of business, and his keen interest in the practical 
side of church life. 

Many who are familiar with him solely through 
his Meditations may regard him as a recluse and 
a dreamer, a student of the devout life, given to 
introspection. Others who have read his more 
ambitious books, dealing with theological and 
philosophical subjects, may hold him to have been 
a man of rare speculative power, and some who 
chanced to hear him preach once or twice in 
their lifetime, may look up to him as a prophet, 
who could read the soul of things and inspire 
his hearers with lofty and beautiful ideals. But 
very few of them perhaps ever believe him to 
have been the rarest of all men — a practical Chris- 
tian ; one who carried out in the daily routine 
of duty the thoughts that he breathed, the beliefs 
that he cherished, and the emotions which filled his 
soul. It was only those who came into personal 
contact with him, who were aware of his multitu- 
dinous labours on behalf of his congregation and 
parish, of his indefatigable zeal in ministering to 
the wants of all ages and classes, and inspiring 
the different associations and agencies in connection 
with his church with a true conception of their 
vocation and duty. True, he was a mystic, but he 
was a practical mystic, of all men the most 
irresistible ; a dreamer of dreams that he realised in 
fact ; a seer of visions which he transformed into 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 261 



reality. Preaching at the reopening of his church, 
he paid a generous tribute to his predecessors in 
office, and proclaimed the Gospel of humanitarianism, 
of practical Christianity, of religion in common life, 
which was to those who knew him the main note 
of his preaching and the foundation of his work and 
life. " We have this day," he said, 

reopened our "holy and beautiful house." It has not 
been unclothed, but clothed upon. I am glad that it has 
not been unclothed, glad the old memories still surround 
the ancient walls. Sixty-and-five years has this church 
been in existence, and its life has been a progress from 
the streamlet to the sea. With that progress I myself 
had little to do; other men have laboured, and I have 
entered into their labours. I have been indebted to a 
long line of illustrious predecessors — to the evangelical 
fervour of Martin, the genuine ability of M'Farlane, the 
energetic power of Caesar, the intellectual vigour of Brown, 
the popular eloquence of Robertson, the literary fame of 
Boyd, the profound spirituality and unblemished piety of 
my immediate pre-runner, Mr. M'Murtrie. 

But looking back on the labours of others, and speak- 
ing purely from the standpoint of a spectator, I may be 
allowed to feel proud. I may be allowed to congratulate 
myself that I have been privileged to be the minister of 
the congregation which has done so much for the cause of 
humanitarian interests. No one can say that, originally, 
the lines were cast to you in pleasant places. Around 
you was the city, with its sins and sorrows — its sins of 
deepest colour, its sorrows of darkest dye. Before you 
were poverty, squalor, vice, personal failure, social corrup- 
tion, human degeneracy. Over this trackless region you 
have made a path, through which already the flowers 
begin to peep. Your vast Sabbath Schools, your flourish- 
ing Fellowships, your extensive classes for males and 
females, your Clothing Club in which self-help has been 
made to blend with benevolent help, your munificent 
donations to church schemes; above all, your power of 



262 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



personal visitation, have contributed to purify the air and 
have left to the germs room to grow. 

And now what should be our guerdon of this extended 
building? More sacrifice, more work to do; that is what 
you expect — you and I. We have opened wide our doors 
that more of humanity may enter in. But if in the 
language of the hymn we look for " many a labour, many 
a sorrow, many a tear," we look also for that which shall wipe 
away all tears from the eyes. We look for an increase 
of that humanitarian love which is itself the love of 
Christianity's divine Head, and in whose light and leading 
we believe that the weight of the burden shall disappear. 
It is this conviction which to-day emboldens us to con- 
secrate our building to the Highest, and to say to the 
Chief Corner-Stone of all its architecture — " Establish 
Thou the work of our hands." 

The amount and character of the work which 
we have thus seen Dr. Matheson accomplished 
on behalf of his congregation and parish, would be 
sufficient to tax the energies of most men ; but when 
we follow him into his study, and consider his 
labours there for the wider public who knew him 
mainly as an author, we are filled with genuine 
astonishment. His literary output during the 
thirteen years of his ministry in St. Bernards was 
equal in quantity to what he produced at Innellan. 
It may not, however, have taxed him quite to the 
same extent, for the subjects on which he wrote 
demanded less research and less profound thinking. 
It may be said, of course, that his choice in this 
respect was natural because he had less leisure, 
but this was not the whole reason, and it will 
be afterwards shown that his departure from the 
themes that attracted him in his Innellan days was 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 263 



the result of a natural development. His mental 
and spiritual growth drew him into new paths and 
attracted him to fresh subjects. 

One important change is noticeable : his con- 
tributions to periodical literature during this time 
are fewer in number, and they are on more 
biblical themes. They are of a lighter vein, more 
expository in character, and better adapted for the 
general religious public. They are found, conse- 
quently, in the pages of those magazines that are 
meant for Sunday reading. We find him accord- 
ingly writing for Good Words, The Homiletic 
Magazine, The Quiver, The Expository Times, The 
Christian World, and The Children's Guide. His 
fame had now crossed the Atlantic, and contribu- 
tions by him are solicited by such magazines as The 
Biblical World published in Chicago, and by The 
Sunday School Times of Philadelphia. All his 
articles in these magazines are characterised by his 
usual freshness of thought and finish of style, and 
one of them on the " Feminine Ideal of Christianity," 
which appeared in The Biblical World, is of ex- 
ceptional ability and interest. 

The very year after his induction to St. Bernard's 
he published a new volume, The Psalmist and the 
Scientist, or the Modern Value of the Religious 
Sentiment. This was the aftermath of his im- 
portant work, Can the Old Faith Live with the New? 
It was a selection, so to speak, from the chips that 
had collected in his workshop while he was engaged 
on that striking volume. The subject continued to 



264 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



interest him during the remainder of his life, and 
ten years afterwards he reverted to it in a volume 
which he wrote, but never published, on Natural 
Religion. The special subject of The Psalmist and 
the Scientist he had already anticipated in a long 
and thoughtful article which he wrote on " Modern 
Science and the Religious Instinct." The question 
which he asked in that article was : " Is the modern 
doctrine of evolution unfavourable to the develop- 
ment of the religious sentiment ? Does it tend 
naturally to dwarf the growth of the primitive 
instinct or to exert a chilling influence on the 
warmth of early days ? " Conceding that there is 
no incompatibility between the spirit of early faith 
and the spirit of modern science, his article is an 
attempt to answer these questions ; and, beginning 
with the statement that the three elements which 
constitute the natural basis of religion are a sense 
of wonder, a sense of fear, and a sense of depend- 
ence, he shows that on the principle of evolution 
these three elements not only remain but are intensi- 
fied and purified, broadened out and strengthened to 
such a degree, as to make them surer foundations of 
religion. In another article, which he wrote about 
the same time, on " Evolution in relation to 
Miracles," which appeared in The Homiletic 
Magazine, he touches on the same question, and 
defining miracle in the Christian sense to be the 
"initial stage of that process by which a lower law 
is transcended by a higher law," he finds nothing in 
evolution that would contradict it. It was thus his 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 265 



habit to prepare himself for his more important 
books by a series of articles or addresses ; he 
threshed out the subject first of all in his own mind, 
and looked at it from every standpoint. This 
largely accounts for the clearness of thought and 
sureness of step which characterised all his writing. 
In his preface to The Psalmist and the Scientist, he 
states the purpose of the book. He says : " I 
design to inquire whether the religious sentiment 
of the past has been superannuated or rendered 
obsolete by the modern conception of nature ? 
I have expressed respectively these seemingly 
opposite standpoints by the title, The Psalmist and 
the Scientist. Science is confessedly the author of 
the modern conception of nature ; the Book of 
Psalms is admittedly the repository of the religious 
sentiment in its largest and most comprehensive 
form." 

This may not be one of Dr. Matheson's greatest 
books, but it has proved itself to have been one of 
his most useful. It popularised the subject of his 
former volume, illustrated its arguments in various 
ways, and put material into the hands of preachers 
which they were not slow to use. The ordinary 
reader may not have been able to follow the reason- 
ing of Can the Old Faith Live with the New f but 
in the newer volume the subject is brought down to 
the level of every man who possesses a religious 
sentiment, and the Book of Psalms, with which 
every Christian is more or less familiar, is made the 
starting-point and ground of the argument. The 



266 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



mind of the ordinary worshipper was, at the time 
of the appearance of Dr. Matheson's book, sorely 
distressed by the fear that the modern conception 
of nature had made religion impossible. This was 
the man that Dr. Matheson appealed to. In his 
earlier book he deliberately chose for his audience 
the thoughtful and the learned. In his later volume 
he selected the wider public for his hearers. His 
appeal to both was successful in the extreme. No 
man of his day did more on behalf of true religion, 
in relation to the danger that threatened it, than 
Dr. Matheson. He enabled the religious public to 
breathe freely once more, and he did this not by 
stemming the new tide of thought, but by allowing 
it to spread over the religious sentiment which 
absorbed it. The writer, in this volume, discusses 
such subjects as the " Psalmist's Argument for 
God"; his "View of the Origin of Life" and of 
"Human Insignificance" ; his "Ground of Religious 
Confidence"; his " Principle of Survival and Con- 
servation." He shows how, when the sentiments 
of the religious consciousness come into contact with 
the views of evolution on the same subjects, there 
is no real conflict ; the older truth is simply 
widened and deepened by the impartation of the 
new. The success of the volume was immediate 
and deserved. 

In 1888 he published two new volumes, Land- 
marks of New Testament Morality \ and Voices of 
the Spirit ; the latter, a devotional volume, has 
already been referred to. Shortly after he came to 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 267 



Edinburgh, Dr. Matheson had been asked to 
deliver a lecture to the Church of Scotland Young 
Men's Guild ; the first of a series by distinguished 
preachers. He chose as his subject, " The Relation 
of Christian to pre-Christian Morality," and this 
forms the title of the first chapter of his new book. 
In his preface he declares his aim to have been to 
compress into a few connected chapters what seemed 
to him to be the distinctive and salient principles of 
New Testament morality. The book formed one 
of Nisbefs Theological Library, and in it such 
subjects as the " Motives of Christian Morality," 
the " Christian View of Sin," the " Moral Place of 
Faith," the " Moral Place of Prayer" are discussed. 
The volume is full of vigorous thought, and contains 
some of Dr. Matheson's most characteristic teaching. 
As a chapter in the important subject of Christian 
Ethics, treating it in its fundamental aspects, it 
was timely in its appearance, and is still of value. 

Two years afterwards Dr. Matheson gathered 
together and published in volume form a selection 
from the hymns that he had been writing at irregular 
intervals from his early manhood, and published 
them under the title of Sacred Songs ; and about 
the same time, in 1890, there appeared what many 
regard as his most important book, The Spiritual 
Development of St. Paul If one can judge of its 
value from its popularity it was certainly the most 
successful of all his serious efforts. It has had a 
larger sale than any of his other books, with the 
exception of his devotional volumes and his later 



268 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



publications, such as Studies of the Portrait 
of Christ, and The Representative Men of the Bible. 
The Apostle Paul would seem to have had a 
wonderful fascination for Dr. Matheson. Some 
of his earliest articles in The Expositor have him as 
their subject. In twelve successive issues of that 
magazine there appeared from his pen contributions 
on the " Historical Christ of St. Paul," and subse- 
quently, at frequent intervals, he wrote on various 
themes suggested by the writings of the great 
apostle. Wherein, one may ask, consisted the 
charm of Paul for Dr. Matheson? An answer 
might be found in the fact that between the two 
there must have been a close intellectual and 
spiritual sympathy. They were both eager spirits, 
full of enthusiasm for the highest things, and carried 
along by a passion of thought which nothing could 
stay. They had both a tender and chivalrous love 
for their Master, and they had penetrated to the 
secret of His life as few have done in ancient or 
modern times. Each was dissatisfied until he made 
clear to himself the ground of his belief, and had 
made that belief a living reality in his own soul and 
in the souls of others. Even in their style of 
writing, or at all events of thinking, there is a 
strong similarity. The Apostle to the Gentiles 
certainly did not aim at that finish of style which 
characterised his modern admirer, but in their love 
of paradox they are both alike. They saw at a 
glance, they photographed in their minds an idea 
or a truth, and they cast it forth in what seemed to 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 269 



be an inverted form, which at once caught the eye 
and riveted the attention, and only on reflection 
could the beholder perceive its meaning and 
appreciate its true significance. In dealing with 
the characters of the Old and New Testaments, 
even with those which had caught most of the spirit 
of Christ, Dr. Matheson shows no hesitation in 
pointing out their limitations. They are at best but 
broken lights of the great Sun that they reflected ; 
but in dealing with Paul he manifests a whole- 
hearted admiration, and if he points out defects or 
failures it is only because the great apostle had 
not as yet attained to his full development. These 
defects or failures simply mark stages in his spiritual 
growth, steps in his religious advancement. The 
life at the close is full, rounded, and completed, the 
brightest and most precious gem in the crown of 
Christian discipleship. 

Now, it seems to me that there is one feature 
common to the Apostle Paul and to Dr. Matheson 
in which the latter found a special bond of union : 
each had a thorn in the flesh, and in both cases 
the thorn was the same. According to certain critics, 
of whom Dr. Matheson was one, Paul was a martyr 
to defective eyesight ; and the chronicler of his 
spiritual development was blind. On no occasion 
does Dr. Matheson refer to this bond of union. Of 
all men he was the most reticent with regard to 
his own afflictions, and so far as his great affliction 
was concerned he was, for the most part, absolutely 
silent. He never bemoaned his fate ; he made no 



270 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



parade of his calamity, nor did he even show any 
natural pride in the triumph which he won over 
it. Paul was almost as reticent, but now and again 
he had to speak out, because in his case the thorn 
in the flesh was made a cause of reproach, and this 
reproach he in the end was able to turn to the 
glory of God and his own spiritual advancement. 
It is well for us that he did give indications of what 
he suffered, and of the experiences which he passed 
through, before he attained his final victory ; and 
the great and permanent value of Dr. Matheson's 
book lies in the fact that he makes this thorn in 
the flesh the guiding element in tracing Paul's 
spiritual development. The outward affliction and 
the inward experience, the physical defect and the 
spiritual sufferings, would seem to go hand in hand. 
The one reacts upon the other, and together they 
account for the development of Paul's inner life 
and of his religious views. 

A book that has taken so strong a hold on 
the public mind, and one possessing so many 
exceptional qualities, ought to receive a fuller 
notice than I intend, in this connection, to give 
it. My reason is that in an article which Dr. 
Matheson wrote, seven years afterwards, to a 
volume issued by Dr. Lyman Abbott, of New 
York, on The Prophets of the Christian Faith, 
he gives a resume of his book on St. Paul which 
for fulness and brilliance of treatment far exceeds 
what any other might accomplish. In that sketch, 
extending to twelve pages only, he gives the gist 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 271 



of the larger volume, and anyone who wishes to 
know, at a glance, his mind on the subject will find 
it there. But one thing he does not do ; he does 
not trace the close resemblance between Paul's 
spiritual development and his own. It is quite 
possible, of course, that in writing his book he 
was altogether unconscious of that resemblance ; 
but the very fact that, according to his own con- 
fession, he lingered over the composition of the 
volume, spending two years on its writing and 
many more on its thinking, that of all his books 
it bears the most traces of loving care, patient 
treatment, and sympathetic handling, show that the 
subject had a fascination for him which cannot be 
explained on literary or theological grounds merely ; 
it can only be accounted for on reasons that were 
personal. 

Dr. Matheson points out, to begin with, that 
Paul's first conception of Christianity was absolutely 
different from that of the other apostles. His first 
vision of Christ was in the air ; theirs on the earth. 
He knew Him, at the start, in His resurrection 
glory ; they as the Man of Galilee. His first 
glimpse was of His divinity ; theirs of His humanity. 
The writer then goes on, in a series of chapters 
bristling with suggestive thoughts and full of the 
subtlest yet conclusive reasoning, to show how 
the development of Paul's spiritual life was a 
descent, a coming down from heaven to earth, 
from the divine to the human, from the conception 
of a glorified Christ to a Saviour of the world. In 



272 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



pursuance of his argument Dr. Matheson shows 
how, according to Paul, Christ is the Head of the 
universe, of the state, of society, and of the family ; 
not only coming into touch with, but sanctifying, 
the commonest duties and things of life. His flight 
is towards the gospel of humanitarianism, of saving 
the world by being its servant, of redeeming man 
by ministering to him, of gaining the crown by 
bearing the cross. The resurrection Christ of 
Paul's completed journey is the Christ of sight 
who has passed into that of faith, who again has 
passed from that of faith to that of love, and from 
that of love to that of hope. Hope for the in- 
dividual, hope for the family, hope for society, hope 
for the state, hope for the world, hope for the 
universe. Christ is the Head of all. "In Him 
all are gathered together," and this gathering in 
has taken place through Christ's emptying of 
Himself, through taking upon Himself the form 
of a servant, and becoming obedient unto death, 
even the death on the Cross. 

Now, a close follower of Dr. Matheson's career 
as a preacher and a writer is bound to find in it 
the counterpart of the development which he traces 
in the life of the Apostle Paul. He too began with 
the worship of a glorified Christ. Reflecting on 
the sermons which, during his early ministry, he 
preached at Innellan, and those which crown his 
later life, one is conscious of a progress which, 
in its own sphere and on its own lines, is similar 
to that through which the great Apostle of the 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 273 



Gentiles passed. Early hearers of Dr. Matheson 
were carried up into the seventh heaven by his 
flashes of thought, by his spiritual aspirations, by 
his imaginative flights. But not infrequently they 
were left there. In his sermons there may have 
been that lack of reality, of food for common life, 
which characterised the early preaching of the 
Apostle Paul. But, as the years advanced, the 
thought, without losing its strength or buoyancy, 
became more sober. It grew more into touch with 
the experiences of men. The preacher descended 
to the earth and took up its common sights and 
sounds, put himself into sympathy with the ordinary 
lot of human existence ; nay, he did more, he 
showed a tender concern for the sorrows and 
sufferings of men, and brought the gospel of Divine 
love to bear, with its redeeming grace, upon the 
calamities of existence, and showed how the love 
of the Father as revealed in the death of the Son 
transformed the experiences of His children and 
made them the means of spiritual advancement and 
religious growth. In other words, the Gospel of 
Dr. Matheson became more humanitarian, and 
showed how the Cross of Christ sanctified and 
glorified human existence. A similar develop- 
ment can be seen in Dr. Matheson as an 
author. His earliest books and articles deal 
with subjects which are purely theological and 
philosophical. They are themes that are, so to 
speak, in the air; they interest the mind of man, 
and at first sight they do not seem to have much 
18 



274 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



relation to or influence on his life. But as the 
years advanced new subjects present themselves. 
They are in a sense more real, more human, 
more personal. " The Growth of the Spirit of 
Christianity" gives place to ' 'The Spiritual Develop- 
ment of St. Paul," " The Natural Elements of 
Revealed Theology" to "The Portrait of Christ" 
and "The Men and Women of the Bible," 
religion to theology, and religion as a spiritual 
development to its practical expression in the 
life of man. 

But what I regard as the personal note in the 
book is by far the most interesting and suggestive. 
The opening chapters deal at considerable length 
with Paul's special affliction, which he indirectly 
refers to as a "thorn in the flesh." Dr. Matheson 
is at particular pains to show, by a process of very 
careful and thorough exegesis, what this particular 
affliction may have been, and he comes to the 
conclusion that it was defective eyesight. In this 
is to be found Paul's thorn in the flesh. A number 
of the reviewers disputed this conclusion, but none of 
them did so in more than a doubting way. For us, 
however, the suggestive point is that Dr. Matheson 
held this opinion. For us the luminous fact is not 
the conclusion which Dr. Matheson came to, but 
the manner in which he uses it to interpret the 
spiritual development of the apostle. Taking his 
stand on the apostle's confession that he " besought 
the Lord thrice " to deliver him from his calamity, 
the author searches for the occasions in the life of 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 275 



Paul when this prayer was uttered. Each, he 
believes, marks a crisis in the spiritual growth of 
the apostle, and if one can lay his hand on the 
particular moment when the cry for relief was 
uttered, he can also discover the stage in his 
development which Paul had reached. The theo- 
logical views of the apostle, his interpretation 
of Christianity, and his own relation to it as an 
individual, will be found to synchronise with each 
particular cry. 

The first step, accordingly, in Paul's spiritual 
struggle Dr. Matheson would see in the apostle's 
glorification of the flesh, in his belief, inherited 
from his Jewish training, that the servant of the 
Divine must be flawless, not only in spirit but also 
in body. Paul had been taught to believe that a 
physical defect was a mark of the Divine anger, 
and how could he, with his impaired organ of 
vision, hope to be an accredited missionary to the 
Gentiles. Paul's solution of this difficulty Dr. 
Matheson would find in the note which he struck 
in his earliest preaching. The apostle at this stage 
shared the belief that the Lord was at hand. The 
troubles of the present time would soon be over ; 
the millennium was near, and by the glory which 
was about to be revealed to waiting souls the 
sufferings of life would be obliterated. The soul 
of the believer would be caught up into the heavens, 
and the bodily sufferings of earth would give place 
to transports of eternal joy. 

The second stage in the struggle Dr. Matheson 



276 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



would see in Paul's hatred of the flesh, in the 
warfare which he waged against it during the 
period of his Galatian ministry. If his Epistles 
to the Thessalonians afford a key to his attitude in 
the first, his Epistle to the Galatians reveals the 
stage which he had reached in his second 
struggle. The vision of the resurrection Christ 
was beginning to fade ; the speedy deliverance 
which he had hoped for was not to be his ; the 
battle of life must be fought to a finish ; his thorn 
in the flesh must still be endured. Well then, said 
the apostle, let me endure. If the flesh lusteth 
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, 
let me trample the flesh under foot ; let me keep 
my body under ; let me " beat it black and blue." 
My prayer is not to be answered as I expected ; 
my defective eyesight is not to be improved ; well 
then, let my prayer be answered in another way. 
I shall endeavour to forget my thorn ; I shall do 
my work in spite of it ; the mission of my life shall 
not fail because of physical suffering. I shall fulfil 
my God - appointed task in the face of every 
hardship and of every pain. 

The third stage of the struggle has still to be 
noted. The apostle's cry was heard at last ; and 
his prayer, like all prayers, was answered, not in 
the imperfect way in which he had at first desired, 
but in a manner far beyond his thinking or his 
asking. In this third stage, which is marked by 
the Epistles to the Corinthians and the Pastoral 
Epistles, which close the apostle's career on earth, 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 277 



Dr. Matheson sees Paul's final triumph. His 
first solution was in being lifted up from the earth ; 
his second in despising the earth ; and his third in 
loving it. In other words, he had now come to 
see that the crosses of life, and his special cross, 
could only be understood, only be borne, in the 
light of the Cross of Christ. The Man of Sorrows 
bore with patience not only a thorn, but a crown of 
thorns ; He conquered by submitting ; He proved 
victorious by yielding ; nay, He found in the 
afflictions of the present time the means for His 
spiritual growth. His attitude accordingly towards 
the trials of life was one of love, a love which in 
the end was crowned by a hope that those who 
had learned of Him would, through patient 
endurance, also conquer and be awarded the palm 
of victory. Hence, in the last stage of Paul's life 
Dr. Matheson sees the apostle's true solution of 
his difficulty, an answer to his prayer; for his 
attitude towards the homely things of life, the 
troubles and trials of man's lot in the world, had 
changed, and the note of his teaching became that 
of the gospel of his Master : " Perfect through 
suffering." 

I have dwelt at some length on these points, 
for the reason already stated, because in them 
there is a personal note. The author in thus 
interpreting Paul's spiritual experiences was also 
tracing his own. He may have done so quite 
unconsciously, but all the same the result of his 
analysis throws a flood of light on his own life. 



278 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



At an earlier stage I endeavoured to account for 
Dr. Matheson's Christian optimism, and I did SO 
in much the same way as he accounts for Paul's. 
One was dimly conscious of the struggle through 
which he passed, and of the battle which he 
fought. On a priori grounds it was found that he 
could have conquered only as a Christian ; but 
here, so to speak, he gives us a bit of his auto- 
biography ; he shows us, in tracing the spiritual 
experiences of Paul, what his own were. Indeed, 
I believe that, having passed through them first, 
having reached the goal before he came to the 
study of the apostle's life, he was able to under- 
stand that life through a sympathy born of a 
common trial and a common victory. It was the 
Cross of Christ undoubtedly which interpreted for 
Dr. Matheson the meaning of his thorn in the 
riesh. In the light of the Cross it became plain. 
This explains his Christian optimism, his en- 
thusiasm, his cheerful outlook upon life and upon 
the world. This also accounts for his message of 
comfort and consolation to the weary and to the 
heavy laden. By his lips and by his pen he spoke 
the word of hopeful submission to the sufferer on 
the bed of pain, and of steadfast courage to the 
soldier eno-ao-ed in the Christian warfare. To the man 
of sorrows and to the man of the world his message 
was the same : " Fight the good fight of faith, 
lay hold on eternal life " ; accept your thorn in the 
Mesh ; the troubles and trials of the present time, 
not as messengers of Satan sent to buffet you, but 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 279 



as angels of mercy leading you in triumph to your 
home on high. 

In his next work Dr. Matheson reverted to 
a subject which had been of much interest to 
him from his early days at Innellan. Some of his 
first contributions to periodical literature and his 
third important work, Natural Elements of 
Revealed Theology, show that the old religions 
had a special attraction for him. He manifested 
in his Baird Lecture a familiarity with certain of 
the pre-Christian religions which was a proof of 
very careful research and prolonged thought ; and 
in 1882 he brought his studies to a point in his 
lecture on " Confucianism," one of the St. Giles' 
Lectures on The Faiths of the World. This 
was a very fine effort, and it brought his name 
before the public in a new relation. The subject 
had evidently been growing in his mind, and he 
extended his studies, so that in 1892 he was able 
to publish a volume of considerable size and 
importance on the ancient religions. Its title, 
The Distinctive Messages of the Old Religions, 
indicated its purpose and its scope, and he was 
careful, in the preface, to make his intention 
perfectly clear. He says that his design was not 
to describe the old religions, but to photograph 
their spirit. " By the distinctive message of a 
religion," he says, " I mean not an enumeration of 
its points, but a selection of the one point in which 
it differs from all others. My design, therefore, is 
more limited than that of some volumes of equal 



280 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 

size. I do not seek the permanent element of 
religion with the Bishop of Ripon, nor the uncon- 
scious Christianity of Paganism with F. D. Manvill, 
nor the moral ideal of the nations with Miss Julia 
Wedgwood : I seek only to emphasise the dividing 
line which constitutes the boundary between each 
religion and all besides." 

The author introduces his subject by a lengthened 
inquiry into the origin of religion, and its common 
element. From this he passes to a consideration 
of the distinctive elements of the great religions of 
the ancient world ; and in his concluding chapter he 
considers the purpose of Christianity in relation to 
these religions, and declares that its mission is one 
of reconciliation. It is in this that one sees the 
value of the book. From the point of view of Dr. 
Matheson's biography it is a fresh proof of his own 
message to the world, which also was one of recon- 
ciliation. The religion of Christ was to his mind 
the great ingatherer ; in Him all "things stand 
together," and in His religion he finds a meeting- 
place for the messages of the nations. The con- 
cluding paragraph of his book indicates what 
to his mind these messages were, and also the 
message of Christianity towards them. The 
religion of Christ, he believes, ought to have a 
peculiar interest in the faiths of the past. 

They are not to her dead faiths ; they are not even 
modernised. They are preserved inviolable as parts of 
herself — more inviolable than they would have been if 
she had never come. Christianity has claimed to be " the 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 281 



manifold wisdom of God." In this ascription she has 
been candid to the past. She has not denied its wisdom ; 
she has only aspired to enfold it. She has not sought 
to derogate from the doctrines of antiquity ; she has only 
sought to diminish their antagonisms. China may keep 
her materialism, and India may retain her mysticism ; 
Rome may grasp her strength, and Greece may nurse 
her beauty ; Persia may tell of the opposition to God's 
power, and Egypt may sing of His pre-eminence even 
amidst the tombs : but for each and all there is a seat in 
the Christian Pantheon, and a justification in the light of 
the manifold wisdom of God. 

A break of four years in Dr. Matheson's literary- 
activity now intervened. It was the longest break, 
and for this very reason it may not be without 
its significance. Four years elapsed between the 
publication of The Distinctive Messages of the Old 
Religions and his next book, The Lady Ecclesia. 
It was in 1896 that he gave it to the world, and 
it made its entrance under the auspices of new 
publishers. For a number of years his books had 
been published by the Blackwoods. T. & T. Clark, 
James Nisbet & Co., Cassell, and James Clarke & 
Co., had also in turn published one or other of his 
books. With all of these firms he was on the best 
of footings, and maintained his friendly relations 
with them to the end ; but he now became associ- 
ated with H odder & Stoughton, and the remaining 
volumes written by him, with the exception of one 
or two devotional books, were published by them. 
The break of four years, I have remarked, may 
be regarded as significant, for The Lady Ecclesia 
marks a new departure, and the books that he 



282 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



subsequently wrote may be said to be but a 
development of the lines which he in that volume 
laid down. We now find him dealing with subjects 
that are purely religious and personal. He had 
advanced to the last stage in his literary develop- 
ment, in which he would seem to be drawn to 
themes of universal import and to characters that 
come into close touch with human life on every 
side. Especially was he attracted by the central 
figure in Bible history, Jesus Christ Himself. 
The life and teaching of the Saviour became to 
him the one theme worthy to be dealt with, and 
the volumes that he wrote on this and kindred 
topics were the most popular and influential ever 
published by him. His progress, like that of the 
apostle, was a descent. He began with subjects 
of lofty thought ; he contented himself at the end 
with lowly themes, but these themes after all were 
the only vital ones, for they were common to the 
heart of humanity, and came into contact with 
man's experience at every point. The last note 
sounded by him was the same as that struck by 
the angels : " Peace on earth, goodwill towards 
men." Religion in common life came to be the 
absorbing topic of his latest thought and writing. 

The Lady Eccksia is an allegory. For beauty 
of thought, for chasteness of style, for sustained 
interest, it would be difficult in its own class to find 
its equal. Its subject is the development of the 
Spirit of Christ in the Church and in the individual ; 
a restatement in allegorical form of one of his 



PASTOEAL AND LITERARY 283 



earliest books. Indeed, it might have as a sub- 
title, "The Christ of History and the Christ of 
Experience," and no one can read it without finding 
a world of light shed both upon the story of the 
Church, especially during its earlier struggles and 
triumphs, and upon his own Christian experience. 
Not only does it make plain different epochs in the 
history of the Church and in the struggles of the 
individual soul towards a fuller realisation of the 
spirit of Christ, but it also unfolds, sometimes 
with startling effect, the inner meaning of Christian 
doctrine, and gives a conception of Christianity as 
a whole which is certain to find an abiding place 
in religious literature. 

Not its least significant note is the light which 
it throws upon his own life. The kingdom which 
The Lady Ecclesia has inherited from her ancestors, 
and which forms the background of the allegory, is 
an island, and the book abounds in descriptions of 
the great ocean which surrounds it. The sighing 
of the winds, the moaning of the waves, the passing 
to and fro of ships, and the infinite distance that 
lay beyond, are again and again referred to ; and 
cause the reader to inquire, Whence come these 
allusions ? what memories in the mind of the blind 
poet-preacher do they recall ? The answer may be 
found in the following extract from Dr. Sime's 
reminiscences. It refers to the old Innellan days, 
to the times when Dr. Matheson sat in his manse 
overlooking the firth, and commanding a view of 
the sea opening wide in the distance. " At times," 



284 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



says the doctor, the moaning of the sea, with the 
sighing and sobbing of the sea breezes through the 
trees below, would come into his study where he 
was sitting, perhaps pierced ever and anon by the 
solemn monotone of the whistle of an ocean steamer 
passing along. 

" I often listen to that music," he said one evening, 
shortly after my arrival, and as we stood together at the 
window. It was a breezy evening, the sun setting towards 
Arran, with a radiant shaft of light up the firth. White 
horses were racing athwart the sea and breaking on the 
shore with a muffled roar, and a black showery cloud 
hovered over the far-off town of Largs. Round Toward 
Point a brown-sailed barge, leaning well over with reefed, 
rounded sail, fled up the firth like a bird, and was quickly 
followed by the Wemyss Bay boat; whilst an ocean 
steamer glided majestically past Innellan through the 
white horses, the smoke of the steamer curling in the 
distance prettily, after its work was done. The music 
that was coming into the room was massive and grand. 

" That weird music comes up here from the ocean like 
the far-off music of another world, a symphony of great 
Nature. How varied and multiform it is ! I often listen to 
it, when sitting here alone, or perhaps sometimes in the 
depth of night ; it puts one in reverie. And that ? Listen ! 
The monotone of that passing steamer, decisive and clear, 
how finely it blends with Nature's majestic music ! What 
liner is it ? " 

" An Allan liner, I think, for Canada ! The ships, the 
lights, the shadows, pearly edged distant cloudlets, the 
breezes, — are passing through the firth like thoughts 
through one's consciousness." 

" Exactly ! One's consciousness is more lasting than 
the firth itself, with a character of its own which we 
bring into the world, unfledged. It is an eternal fact, 
deeper than force or matter, and altogether distinct from 
either ; for that alone I reverence and hope for the utmost 
wreck of a man that I meet. That passing syren-note of 



PASTORAL AND LITERARY 285 



your passing steamer, faintly pealing through the breezes, 
is beautiful, is it not? It is a part of the massive music 
we hear, and perhaps the grandest. It reminds me of the 
story of Goethe when he was on the Alps. On the whole, 
it seems he liked best, not the mountains and their snowy 
peaks in the sky, but a manufactory in one of the valleys. 
The unceasing humming of the spinning-wheel sounded 
in his ears in such a place, as never before, as the Music 
of the Spheres. No wonder, then, that Carlyle so valued 
Goethe. It was unquestionably the harmony of the 
spheres he suddenly heard ; and in the valleys, mind you ; 
think of that ! So is that symphony of Nature we are 
listening to, with the occasional syren-note; but in the 
most solitary clachan of our mountains and glens, you 
will sometimes see — I daresay you have already seen it — 
the sweet light and the unruffled life of heaven itself. 
Heaven sometimes begins here, and immortality." 

The same year saw a fresh volume of Medita- 
tions from his pen, Words by the Way side > which 
has been translated into German. A year later, in 
1897, ne published a small Christmas book, The 
Bible Definition of Religion, based on Micah vi. 8, 
and a larger volume, Sidelights from Patmos, 
This latter book he describes as " Flashes of 
modern suggestion from the ancient Apocalypse." 
Many of its chapters originally appeared as articles 
in The Expositor, and it was at the suggestion of 
the editor of that magazine that Dr. Matheson 
collected them, and, with some fresh additions to 
their number, brought them out in book form. 
He remarks : " I believe the design of St. John in 
Patmos was to state the principles which would 
regulate the good time coming. He wishes to 
indicate what in any world would be to him the 



286 PASTORAL AND LITERARY 



consummation of happiness. He does so some- 
times in sober language, sometimes in allegoric 
symbols. I have made a few selections both from 
the sober language and from the allegoric symbols, 
with a view of testing the adaptation of the picture to 
our modern ideas of optimism. The other ques- 
tion I wish to consider in these, otherwise dis- 
connected, chapters is, Whether St. John's ideal is 
still our ideal ; whether we should still accept his 
principles as those which should regulate the good 
time coming ? " 

The success of the volume was an assurance of 
the author having answered the question, which he 
put to himself, in a satisfactory manner. The 
subject suited his mind ; it was quite in keeping 
with his own method ; and the fresh light which 
he threw on passages that had been a source of 
difficulty to generations of readers, secured him 
heartfelt thanks from every quarter. He received 
many letters of gratitude, and with such an effort 
he could very well close his literary record as 
minister of St. Bernard's. 



CHAPTER XI 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 

Admirers of Dr. Matheson will, in the days to 
come, seek out the house in St. Bernard's Crescent, 
where for twenty years he lived and laboured. It 
was the third which he occupied since he became a 
minister. For the first few years at Innellan he 
resided at Labrador House, until his manse was 
built, and during the whole period of his residence 
in Edinburgh, with the exception of a few weeks 
towards its close, 19 St. Bernard's Crescent was 
his home. The crescent itself is quiet and 
dignified, having a noble front of Doric pillars, 
which makes it one of the most distinctive buildings 
even in Edinburgh. The crescent, in and around 
which many men eminent in art and literature 
have resided, had an interesting origin. " Three- 
quarters of a century ago its site was part of the 
estate of the great painter, Sir Henry Raeburn. 
Walking one day with the owner, another great 
painter, Sir David Wilkie, suggested to him that 
he should build on each side of the double row of 
elms, a crescent, in the purest style of Greek 

287 



288 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



architecture. Sir Henry took his brother artist's 
advice, and the result is perhaps unequalled in a 
range of private houses. Within the railed, grassy 
enclosure in the centre are the remains of the 
avenue of elm trees, now reduced to the sacred 
number of seven, whose branches are dotted in 
spring-time with the nests of cawing rooks ; hence 
the local name, * Craw Crescent.' " Among the 
famous men who at one time or another resided in 
the near neighbourhood were Sir James Simpson, 
the famous physician ; Sir John Watson Gordon, 
President of the Royal Scottish Academy ; the 
great Christopher North ; Robert Chambers, the 
publisher ; Horatio Macculloch, the artist ; and 
Thomas Carlyle, the first eighteen months of his 
married life having been spent at No. 21 Comely 
Bank, hard by. The district had seen better days. 
Right beneath Dr. Matheson's study, which looked 
to the back, was a slum quarter ; and his windows, 
which were double-cased, looked down upon a 
public-house, whose sign-board boasted of his own 
surname. But he chose the house for its spacious- 
ness, and for its proximity to his church and to 
his sphere of parochial labours. It suited him 
admirably in every respect until the end, when he 
migrated to a new house which he had bought in 
Belgrave Crescent, one of the finest residential 
districts in Edinburgh, but which, alas, he did not 
live long to occupy. 

It is natural that many should like to know 
how Dr. Matheson, with his physical infirmity, 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 289 



was able to accomplish so great and so varied a 
work during the thirteen years of his active ministry 
at St. Bernard's. The chief factor, undoubtedly, 
in his harmonious, successful, and marvellously 
fruitful life, was his sister, Miss Matheson. The 
world will never know what she was to her brother 
during those years of incessant toil and strenuous 
effort. She shielded him from the worries that are 
the lot of those who, as parish ministers, think and 
toil for their people. In her hands he knew that 
his household affairs were safe, and his domestic 
peace secure. In every movement of a congrega- 
tional or parochial nature, where a woman's hand 
should be seen or felt, she took a leading part, and, 
in the social life in which he had to mingle, her 
tactful and gentle manner smoothed over every 
difficulty. With this safe anchorage he could 
devote himself unreservedly to his own special 
work, in the full knowledge that, whatever happened, 
no trouble could disturb his dwelling. During his 
residence in Edinburgh, his youngest sister, Ellen, 
formed a member of the family, and between the 
three there was such a perfect sympathy and 
understanding that ofttimes their happy moods re- 
called to the visitor the innocent joys of childhood. 
During his earlier years at Innellan his other 
sister, Mrs. Monteath, then unmarried, and affec- 
tionately known among the villagers, with whom 
she was very popular, as " Miss Maggie," 
occasionally relieved Miss Matheson of the 
management of his house. The affection which 
19 



290 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



they had for him in his boyhood deepened with 
the growing years and contributed largely to the 
" happy life" which, he said to his eldest sister 
shortly before his death, had been his lot. 

He was in the habit, as has already been pointed 
out, of taking full advantage of every minute of 
time ; and without his careful arrangement of the 
day's labours, shielded though he was from every 
unnecessary interruption and worry, he would not 
have been able to get through his day's work, 
or to accomplish all that he was able to do in 
the world. He was greatly aided by the young 
men who from time to time acted as his private 
secretaries. They were naturally drawn to him, 
and he was able to inspire them with his own 
enthusiasm. They looked up to him with profound 
respect and reverence, and no task on his behalf 
was to them a labour. One of them, and not the 
least devoted, Mr. William Smith, who served Dr. 
Matheson in this capacity during the last ten years 
of his life, has furnished me with the following 
account of his daily routine. Mr. Smith came to 
him shortly before he was provided with a colleague 
in St. Bernard's, and the brief sketch which he 
contributes of his parochial duties does not give 
the entire measure of the work which Dr. Matheson 
performed when he had sole charge ; but his de- 
scription of his chief's method of work in the study 
is not only full but most interesting. Speaking of 
his parochial labours, he says : 

When I took up my duties I began to put forth my 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 291 



poor energies to assist him in his literary labours and 
the parochial round of St. Bernard's Parish, Edinburgh. 
Down in the Stockbridge vale he lived, and moved, and 
had his being. Select company had lived there before 
him ; it was a region sacred to the memory of the mighty 
dead. And was not this a worthy follower in their foot- 
steps. Did he not dream in Carlylean philosophy, did 
he not picture in his pages those Bible heroes whose 
descendants look out upon us from the canvas of Raeburn ? 
It would seem that here, for him, those great ones had left 
an imperishable legacy behind. 

A parochial round, I say — but no common task. For 
those were busy days. The numerous parochial organisa- 
tions made their due demands. And then the baptisms 
and the marriages — usually performed at his own house 
at the mystic evening hour of eight ! How impressed I 
was — coming from the South — with the simplicity of 
these marriage rites, and yet with their solemnity, as, 
with his full resonant voice, he pronounced the words, 
11 The Lord bless thee, and keep thee : the Lord make 
His face to shine upon thee, and give thee peace." It 
was thought a great thing to be married by "the blind 
minister," and even to be visited by him. But early in 
my day he was beginning to curtail the parochial visita- 
tion. Allied to the prolonged and constant strain of 
mental work, it was more than he could bear. At the 
expense of his own pocket, he secured the services of 
an ordained minister. And yet his day was full. Session 
meetings and other meetings remained ; the regular pulpit 
work, literary work, baptisms and marriages, were with 
him still. It was surprising how he got through so much 
and yet found time for the social hour — the hour of 
recreation. 

Mr. Smith then takes us into the study 
and shows us the nature of the work that was 
done there, and the way in which Dr. Matheson 
utilised the time at his disposal. His method 
was much the same as that which he followed at 



292 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



Innellan, but it varied in some important points, 
which are worth recording. 

What was his day's routine ? For his life was essen- 
tially a routine — a clearly defined programme essential 
to his happiness. He would descend about nine to his 
breakfast, which he took with his correspondence and 
the papers. Unless any letter's reply involved some 
theological question, I usually replied myself, in his 
name. But he liked all replies sent off practically by 
return of post, and he would scarcely rest till I told him 
they were despatched. When I had read to him his 
letters, I took up the morning papers. Notices of in- 
teresting literature were, on the whole, the most attractive 
feature ; but his attention was by no means restricted to 
the book department Politics, criminal trials, wars and 
rumours of wars, all held for him a certain interest. 
Particularly had he a penchant for the realm of criminal 
law. He often told me he would in other physical 
circumstances have studied for the Bar. Assuredly he 
had a remarkably logical mind, which, in this respect, 
enabled him to decide the question " Guilty or Not 
Guilty ? " with, I have every reason to believe, absolutely 
unfailing justness. He ever had an interest, too, in prison 
methods and criminal reformation ; he might have written 
It is Never Too Late to Mend. In the field of politics 
he did not evince very pronounced opinions. Matters of 
mechanism had for him a wonderful attraction. When 
I explained to him the nature of the turbine or the motor, 
or read to him of some accelerated service of train or 
steamship, he drank in the information greedily. He 
would speculate on their developments in the future, 
and, in this respect, he might have produced Mr. W r ells' 
Anticipations. 

From the papers he would pass to his studies in 
French and German. These were brief ; but they were 
regular and remembered. He would often remark on 
some British slang as obviously derived from one or 
other of the modern tongues. And then he would read. 
Theology, philosophy, science, history, literature — these 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 293 



were his favourite lines. Usually a spell at some two 
such volumes. And then he proceeded to dictate for 
the press. This completed, he left me to attend to letters 
or any proof-reading I might have on hand, betaking 
himself to his work of composition. Leaving his world 
of books and shadows, he would retire into the realms 
of inspiration light. 

This comprehended his day's serious work. In the 
afternoon I again read to him fiction. And in the 
evening I sometimes gave him his third daily repast — 
miscellaneous books and fiction. But what was his fiction ? 
All kinds, if good. He admired the best — George Meredith. 
But, candidly, I think he preferred the lighter vein. Among 
living novelists, there were none he liked better than 
Braddon, Hall Caine, W. E. Norris, and, although so 
optimistic in himself, he thoroughly appreciated the 
genius displayed in the pessimistic pages of Thomas 
Hardy. He held strongly that fiction's province is to 
amuse, and though he perused the problems, thought they 
were problems out of place. Among other modern fiction 
writers in this country he favoured were, of course, 
George Eliot, Barrie, Anthony Hope, Humphry Ward, 
Merriman, and E. F. Benson. In America, he thoroughly 
enjoyed Gertrude Atherton, Mary Wilkins, and James 
Lane Allen. Of the school farther back, Thackeray, 
Dickens, Trollope, and Kingsley had his sympathy ; while 
as to Scott and Lytton — well, he read them once, of course. 
He recently tried again, but could not persevere. The 
elephantine phraseology, just as is also the case with 
the bulk of translated fiction, was too much for him. 
But how he would laugh when fiction afforded a " good 
thing." I used to think that, could the writer have heard 
that laugh, he would have felt his labour had not been 
in vain. 

After he had been some four years in St. 
Bernard's, Dr. Matheson acquired a knowledge 
of the Braille system of writing for the blind. 
Previous to that time all his sermons and books 



294 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



and articles were dictated. It is hard to measure 
the strain which this put on his mind. The last 
work written by him in this manner probably was 
The Spirittial Development of St. Paul. Mr. 
Smith makes very interesting references to the new 
method, and also mentions Dr. Matheson's equal 
mastery of the typewriter. 

Let me now speak of his Braille. Strictly speaking, 
genuine Braille it was not. It is true, he began the 
practice of his peculiar system by learning the orthodox 
Braille alphabet; but he soon played havoc with that 
alphabet. A large number of the letters he " improved 
upon " ; and he never even began to learn the Braille 
method of contractions. Largely his own letters, entirely 
his own abbreviations — this system fulfilled its definite 
purpose and no more. That purpose was to act as a 
private notebook. But when I say " notebook," I do not 
mean that he committed to his Braille characters the 
mere outlines of his train of thought. Every word — every 
article and conjunction — figured in that " notebook." 
The public is indebted to that characteristic — a character- 
istic which enabled me to supply, word for word, a con- 
siderable amount of literary matter which, at his death, 
existed only in the form of Braille " copy " ; in other 
circumstances the full beauty and rhythmic flow of this 
particular writing would have been lost. When he com- 
mitted matter to his Braille, then, it was quite ready for 
dictation for the press. Ultimately, when it was trans- 
ferred to black and white, I do not say that there was no 
retouching; an occasional ambiguity was removed — a 
too-oft-repeated word was exchanged ; but very seldom 
was the whole gist of any sentence altered. And here 
I may mention a point which has always struck me 
forcibly — the remarkable absence in his writings of any 
repetition, in the big sense. And what a common failing 
this repetition is ! And let me suggest how heavily in 
this respect George Matheson was handicapped. The 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 295 



ordinary writer has no difficulty in the rapid scanning 
of his foregoing pages ; but when Dr. Matheson had 
" written up " a sheet of Braille, he rarely reverted to it 
till time for dictating arrived. Once the sheets had been 
added to the pile, the difficulty of " skimming back " was 
so great that it was rarely, if ever, resorted to. And 
ultimately, even when dictating, the piecemeal character 
of the process was such as to positively court the danger 
of repetition, while by this time his mind was usually full 
of other work — other schemes. But no, his train of 
thought was far too clear to allow him to succumb to 
this common weakness; his inspiration went steadily 
forward — no stopping, no going back ; it was like the 
river, flowing gently onward to the sea. 

He occasionally evinced a certain dissatisfaction with 
his Braille concerning its shortcomings in the foregoing 
respect ; but he ever admitted that its advantages greatly 
outweighed its drawbacks. Latterly, indeed, he regarded 
this apparatus as a kind of talisman or spiritualistic medium. 
I remember, once, he made some kind remark about my 
own literary qualifications. I scarcely took him seriously, 
though, for that matter, I find that the fittest have most 
sympathy for the unfit. At any rate, I repudiated his view 
of my " fitness." " Nonsense ! 71 he replied, " get hold of 
something as I get hold of my Braille ; my Braille to me 
is a regular ' planchette.' " It would almost seem that his 
physical affliction had produced positive helps to his 
intellect, that out of his stony griefs Bethel he raised. 

His acquiring of this " blind " method of writing, dates 
only from some sixteen years back. Before that time his 
literary and sermon work must have been pursued with 
enormous difficulty. He never practised contemporaneous 
study and dictation ; and I have often wondered how even 
his great intellect contrived to store the material till 
committal to black and white relieved the strain. I 
believe some lady friend suggested the innovation to him ; 
we are indebted to her, for the old regime could not have 
lasted much longer, and we should have been less rich 
to-day. Usually, when the Braille matter was "written 
up " the original was destroyed ; but he always kept a 



296 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



certain stock, comprising lectures, sermons suitable for 
special occasions, and the like. These were kept in a 
special cupboard in his study, so that he himself could 
get access to them at his will. This cupboard was indeed 
a sacred spot, and the periodical cleaning thereof was 
only effected under the strictest surveillance of myself. 
When travelling, he usually had occasion to carry a 
certain quantity of Braille matter, with a view to dictation 
at the journey's end. This was ever a cause of the keenest 
anxiety to him. "William," he would say at least six 
times on the road, "is that MS. all right?" An unhappy 
experience preyed on his mind ; he had once had most 
of his " raised dots " flattened down on account of improper 
packing. He feared this awful event would recur. It 
did not recur — I took good care of that ; nevertheless, like 
Rachel, he refused to be comforted. 

Occasionally he would receive a Braille letter from 
some blind stranger — usually in England — who had heard 
of his preaching or his books, or who evinced an interest 
in his successful career. With his ignorance of the ortho- 
dox system, he never attempted to decipher such a letter 
himself. I used to transmit them to the Blind School at 
Craigmillar, Edinburgh, where the headmaster soon kindly 
procured a written interpretation of the same. 

For some time after Dr. Matheson became permanently 
blind, he maintained ordinary penmanship. To aid him 
in this, he made use of a small frame crossed at intervals 
of about an inch with pliable catgut strings. In this 
frame the paper was fixed, the pliable strings enabling 
him to keep a fair alignment without placing too abrupt 
a check on his straying from the path. Whether this 
simple expedient was his own invention or whether it, 
too, was suggested to him, I never ascertained. Long 
before my day he had entirely discontinued penmanship — 
though to the end he performed his signature in the case 
of legal documents. 

I must here state, however, that he acquired a know- 
ledge of the typewriter. He had himself no particular 
wish to do this; but a friend was so convinced of its 
usefulness to him that he was persuaded to accept as a 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 297 



present a fine Remington. Mr. Illingworth — then head- 
master of Craigmillar Blind School — came periodically to 
give him lessons; and in a very short time he got on 
surprisingly intimate terms with the keys. He never 
practised regularly enough to acquire any considerable 
speed ; and rapid working was also precluded by the 
preciseness and correctness that pervaded all his work. 
Often during my absence, he would in this manner answer 
his letters on his own account ; and even at other times, 
when not too pressed with work, he would use his machine 
u just to keep his hand in." " I think I have forgotten 
that typewriter," he would say ; and he would ultimately 
express much satisfaction when I told him his production 
needed little or no correction. But if on fairly intimate, 
he never got on affectionate, terms with this innovation. 
It did not really meet his felt want. He could not himself 
refer to the typed, any more than he could refer to the 
pencilled, lines ; and for the practical purposes of his 
serious work, it was useless. With all its drawbacks, his 
boon and blessing was his Braille. 

I have said that in the case of his literary work every 
word was committed to the Braille characters. This was 
not the case with his sermons. In his early preaching 
days at Innellan his sermons were entirely committed to 
memory, and they were preserved in their entirety in 
sermon books. But he forsook this policy — committing 
only the skeleton and enlarging extemporaneously thereon 
in the pulpit. These skeleton sermons were preserved in 
books just as were the complete ones, and, after his 
acquisition of the Braille, were committed to those char- 
acters also. He retained in this Braille form certain 
sermons suitable for special occasions such as anniversaries, 
so that, when occasion arose, he could work them up 
entirely on his own account. He treated in this way 
lectures, or, if he had time for such preparation, public 
speaking of any kind. 

He was very impatient of interruption when 
his mind was in the actual flow of composition, and 
his anxiety to accomplish within the promised time 



298 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



a task he had undertaken often brought him down 
to his study in the morning long before anyone in 
the house was astir. 

If any event could give his mind a morbid turn, it was 
an interruption during his working hours. Right into the 
midst of our morning studies would come a servant with 
a card. She might have brought a bombshell ! " The 
Rev. Melchizedek Howler," I would read, " Kamschatka ! 
it's really too bad ! " he would exclaim as he rose from 
his chair, " I simply must be left time for my work." 
Presently, that laugh — that pervaded the house — and the 
house next door ! The cloud had passed ! He would 
return to me : " William, we must just stop there this 
morning ; mark the place " ; and off again to his new 
friend — new, I say, for, assuming he had failed to recognise 
the name, he no more forgot names than he forgot voices. 
It was the same with his tailor or his hairdresser. Faithful 
to the moment would they come. But the great brain 
had forestalled them and demanded their immediate 
attention. A word — a gesture of impatience. But soon 
again the joke, the laugh — diversion complete. Verily his 
moods were varied and multitudinous ; but very few were 
sad. 

These were the only clouds that even temporarily 
darkened his life. Patient in his affliction — but impatient 
in the hampering of the chariot wheels of his intellect. 
An extra pressure of correspondence, an urgent request 
for some magazine article which he did not like to refuse 
— a spirit of intense impatience immediately possessed his 
soul. I might try my best to curb this spirit ; but all 
efforts had little effect. " That article will do quite well 
in a week" That article was usually done in half the 
time. Often have I appeared for my duties in the morning 
— to find him first in the field. He had prematurely 
risen, descended the stairs, and commenced to work with 
his beloved Braille — to the servants' consternation and 
dismay. They might dust the foundations ; they might 
dust the roof; but they must leave him for the nonce in 
his study — alone. " I could not rest," he would tell me ; 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 299 



" I must get this thing off my mind." But I had to rest 
— till the flash of inspiration had been duly recorded in 
his memorandum. This was his pessimistic vein — the 
magnifying of his responsibilities. " I'm over head and 
ears," he would say to his sister; "no one must bother 
me to-day." He evidently believed he had twelve hours 
work before him. His surprise and satisfaction were 
positively childish when he found he had finished in four. 

When Matheson was at the height of his fame 
the demands made upon him to preach in almost 
every part of the United Kingdom were very 
numerous indeed. He had engagements made, 
nearly two years in advance. He had to refuse the 
vast majority of the invitations sent to him, but 
once a month he was in the habit of occupying the 
pulpit of another church in some part of the 
country, usually in the larger centres of population, 
and in no place did he receive a heartier welcome 
than in his native city of Glasgow. Mr. Smith 
makes amusing reference to the crowds that 
besieged the vestry on such occasions, and to the 
way in which Matheson was able to distinguish 
some old friend or admirer, whom he had not 
met perhaps for thirty years, by the tone of his 
voice. 

In my early days with him he made a practice of 
preaching from home about once a month. I understand 
that neither in Innellan nor in St. Bernard's did he ever 
preach the same sermon twice. The preaching from 
home, however, usually gave him the opportunity of using 
an old discourse, especially as the occasion — often an in- 
auguration or an anniversary — practically necessitated this. 
" Old sermons," I say ; they were often presented with 
such utterly fresh illustration that many might hear them 



300 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



again and think them new. And how obviously gratified 
he was when, as he and I emerged from the vestry 
corridors, I said to him, in an undertone, " A very full 
house." I suppose " a full house " is inspiring to most 
ministers ; it certainly was to //////. 

He always found the actual travelling a great bore; 
but, on the whole, he thoroughly enjoyed these week-ends 
from home. He was apt to be somewhat abstracted till 
his work was done, but after that he was the very soul of 
vivacity and merriment. It is highly amusing to recall 
some of the preparations for his week-end, especially in 
cases where he was bound for a house which he had never 
visited before. To ensure a night's rest in his prospective 
quarters, he deemed it best to make certain arrangements 
some few days before leaving his own house. Sometimes 
in the train, to try and " pass the time " for him, I read 
aloud a little, and I used to wonder if the operation were 
more painful to him or to me. He seemed grateful, 
however ; and really I used sometimes to think that, 
by some telepathic means, he " saw " as much of the type 
as I did. 

Arrived at a strange abode, he liked early to secure the 
general geographical idea of its principal apartments, and 
in this kind of thing he seemed fully as clever as a good 
many people with sight. Also, if the church or lecture 
hall were in the vicinity, he would express a wish to " take 
his bearings " in that respect before the hour of service or 
lecture arrived. I used to conduct him up and down, 
perhaps twice, to and from his prospective rostrum, and, 
as he was somewhat prone to gesticulation, he was ever 
anxious that no loose books, no glass of water, no gas 
chandelier, should be within reach of his arm. Whether 
he always evinced such anxiety I do not know ; but I 
understand that on one occasion a gas globe which pro- 
jected from the side of the pulpit was smashed to atoms by a 
wave of his hand. He stopped and with amazing presence 
of mind exclaimed, " Gather up the fragments." But, 
though he had this preliminary interview with his immedi- 
ate oratorical surroundings, I made a practice of carefully 
conducting him ultimately to his perch; and verily it 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 301 



might oft have been said that "they climbed the steep 
ascent to heaven." I have known occasions when, after 
the service, the vestry was literally besieged ; and particu- 
larly was this the case when preaching in the West. Old 
friends who had not met him for many years would push 
in their forms. " You'll not remember me, doctor ! " A 
moment's hesitation, then a flash over the face, a beaming 
smile, and " Mackintosh ! " Oh yes, it was Mackintosh, 
right enough — no mistake about that. Nothing wonderful 
perhaps ; if men shut their eyes occasionally, it might 
open their ears. 

It is also amusing to recall the intense interest he 
evinced in the personal characteristics of the new friends 
he had been brought into contact with — personal, I mean, 
with regard to physical appearance. There is no doubt 
that, as a rule, he formed a wonderfully accurate idea of 
their outward forms through the medium of their voices. 
On the road home, this subject usually cropped up ; and 
the comparing of our notes often occasioned in him the 
most intense amusement and jocularity. In the mere 
matter of stature, he could be practically left to judge for 
himself ; given a good light, he could actually discern 
objects in silhouette. 

Mr. Smith, after referring to Dr. Matheson's 
recreations, speaks with tenderness and admiration 
of his chief's Christian heroism under his great 
affliction. 

It would not be easy to say, however, what actually 
constituted Dr. Matheson's recreation, unless you applied 
this term to his every conscious act. He so obviously 
" revelled " in his every experience that it was impossible 
to discriminate between the effect of the one and the 
effect of the other. Did he laugh loud and long at some 
passing joke in fiction ; he would also find " a good thing " 
in philosophy's sober tome. Did his countenance evince 
pleasure as, seated on steamer's deck, the Clyde's balmy 
breezes fanned his cheek ; I have seen equally pleasur- 
able expressions when, seated in his study chair, the flash 



302 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



of inspiration came like manna from above. No, every- 
thing was recreation to Dr. Matheson ; though barred 
from the earthly light, more life and fuller was his portion. 
I think I never knew a man who more thoroughly 
" lived." I experienced an agreeable surprise at our very 
first interview. But surprises greater were in store. I 
naturally felt chary of making any intentional reference 
to his particular physical affliction, even in the general 
sense. I went further ; I actually skipped over such 
references when they occurred in books or papers I was 
reading to him. To the end of my service I retained this 
very natural delicacy; but I really think it was labour 
lost. He was prone rather to joke about " the poor blind 
man " than to treat such a subject with sympathetic 
lament. " Pure pretence ! " you will say. I do not know. 
Dr. Matheson was not good at pretence. At any rate, 
outwardly he bore his burden lightly, gallantly, on to 
the end. 

And yet I admit, though usually the most optimistic 
of men, he impressed me at times with strange incon- 
sistencies. I remember more than once that he told me 
he never woke in the morning but with a feeling of regret 
— regret that he had woke, that he had not slept on, into 
that sleep which knows no waking. A brief moment, and 
some scrap of news, some chance remark, some unexpected 
visitant, would instantaneously change the key. His joke, 
his laugh, his beaming face, were a living illustration of 
the joy of living, of life for life's sake. 

Ah, yes ! the pessimism was the disguise — he could 
not have played the opposite r61e so long — so long and 
so successfully. You will find no pessimistic shadows in 
his books ; those who ever met him in the flesh will frame 
him in an atmosphere of wit and geniality. 

None could more effectually enter the heart of the 
child. He had practically given up the Sunday School 
work before my day ; but I understand his addresses to 
the little ones were masterpieces of their kind. He once 
told me he thought he would write a book for children — 
" wee things " he ever called them. Our little ones are 
poorer than they might have been. 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 303 



And he had another talismanic medium — his calumet 
of peace. He certainly had faith in its more or less 
imaginary influence. He ever restricted this indulgence 
to the evening hour, and he has told me that it was to 
him an hour of communion. Latterly, however, he be- 
came less meditative at this particular time of day, owing 
to the fact that he took his pipe with his evening 
reading. And he had great faith in the workings of the 
subconscious mind. Often has he told me he has taken 
his dilemma to bed with him, and has woke up — to find 
the problem solved, the mists dispelled. 

Dr. Matheson was in his home quite as interest- 
ing and inspiring as in the pulpit. Should the 
visitor be an expected or invited guest, or should 
he be an old friend who called at an opportune 
moment, he was overwhelmed with kindness. The 
hospitality of his house was probably unequalled 
in the Church of Scotland, and the gracious welcome 
offered by his sister received a double assurance 
from him. His table-talk on such occasions was 
the brightest, wittiest, and most humorous that can 
be imagined. He kept everyone in the best of 
spirits ; and conversation, light, gay, and laughter- 
provoking, made the visit memorable. At times 
he might be in a silent mood, but that was the 
exception, and the originality of his remarks, the 
unexpected allusions, the apt quotations, and the 
startling suggestions, acted like a tonic on the 
spirits. Dr. Matheson's laughter was the Carlylean 
laughter of the whole man. His nature for the 
time being was absolutely under the control of the 
humorous mood which possessed him. His animal 
spirits reached their highest when he was delivered 



304 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



from some great mental strain. If a difficult piece of 
literary composition were completed, or some great 
effort, in the way of oratory, had been successfully 
accomplished, there was a strong reaction, and he 
gave himself up for the moment to that absolute 
abandon which possesses a boy when the first hour 
of his holidays has arrived. 

(It was in the study, however, and under the 
soothing influence of his beloved pipe, with the 
day's work of preaching or writing well over, that 
one discovered the man in all his moods. On such 
occasions he freely unbent himself and gave to his 
visitor of his very best. There were two outstand- 
ing facts which speedily impressed anyone who had 
frequent personal intercourse with him, and these 
were his remarkable memory and his acute sense of 
hearing. A friend who had been on the most 
intimate terms with him for many years, and who 
by nature and training is of an observant nature, 
remarks regarding the first of these : 

Dr. Matheson's extraordinary memory was, from the 
first, most striking. He could quote by the pageful, 
not merely the Bible — which he had I think by heart 
— but any book which he was interested in, however 
solid or volatile. Nor was it merely the literature that 
he loved that he remembered with exact precision, such 
as Wordsworth's, Shakespeare's, or Burns' poetry, and 
likewise the most abstract metaphysical disquisitions, 
but also the most ephemeral writings of the hour. To 
my surprise, years afterwards, he used to quote, ver- 
batim, whole sentences and even paragraphs of a paper 
of mine which, at his pressing instigation, I prepared and 
read at the village hall, with nervousness — a paper on 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 305 



Burns. It was my first lecture and public appearance 
anywhere. 

For the mere sake of revealing the extent of his 
retentive power, I tested his memory one evening. I took 
up a copy of the Glasgow Herald from the table, and 
twice over read slowly and as solemnly as I could, an 
entire line, column after column, from left to right, of an 
advertisement page, and then, in the same fashion, the 
second line. There was no connection whatever between 
the advertisements, and they ended abruptly and in- 
coherently. Then we had half an hour's talk over our 
pipes, or " burnt-offerings," as we used to call them, about 
the Correlation of Forces or other subject, a whole universe 
away from a line or two of broken advertisements. Finally, 
again I took up the newspaper, and to my astonishment — 
for it looked like witchcraft or clairvoyance — my friend, 
laying down the pipe, deliberately repeated verbatim the 
incoherent fragments, just as I had read them. He had a 
memory, I told him, as sensitive and receptive as a photo- 
graphic plate, and retained for a time good and bad 
alike, rubbish as well as diamonds, but ultimately only the 
diamonds and flowers, in the deepest valley of his memory. 
But he did not much prize mere memory, however 
necessary and valuable. He valued more highly obser- 
vation, reflection, reasoning, insight, foresight, imagination. 
Imagination he prized as the highest power of man ; he 
considered that its cultivation was too much ignored or 
neglected, and, very much too frequently, positively 
discouraged, in even the youngest children, much more so 
in boys at school and young men beginning life's work 
and responsibility ; for not only was imagination one of 
the earliest of the great powers, but imaginative fore- 
thought through life was a gift of the gods, and covered 
far more than mere fairy tale or fiction or make-belief; it 
ranged still more effectively and richly over the hardest 
and sternest facts of life. 

The other fact which, I have observed, speedily 
impressed anyone, who was on friendly terms with 
20 



306 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



Dr. Matheson, was his acute sense of hearing, 
regarding which the same sympathetic observer 
speaks as follows : 

His sense of hearing was not merely most acute, it 
was observing, discerning, and thinking. I have never 
come across, even in the blind, a more delicately acute 
hearing. It was the one perfect avenue in which things 
external poured into his thoughtful mind. In conversation 
the minutest difference of tone, he at once detected. My 
footsteps on the gravel path of the garden he used to 
recognise long before I got into the Manse, or he was 
within earshot of my talk or laugh; and his friend's 
idiosyncrasies and many unknown people's peculiarities 
he diagnosed from their cough, their walk, their mode of 
blowing their noses. 

Upon his sense of hearing he largely relied for his 
picture of character and mind. It was for him direct, 
first-hand knowledge. His knowledge of things visible — 
forms, colours, distance — was from memory or inferred 
and second-hand. Nevertheless, excluded as he was from 
all the visible beauty and harmony of life, he frequently 
said to me that he would rather be deprived wholly of 
sight than hearing. And perhaps it was not an unreason- 
able inference. The avenue of hearing is nearer than that 
of vision to the sensorium, or the central nidus of the 
soul, and disease in this direction or from the seat of 
hearing ends much more frequently in insanity itself, as 
in the great Dean Swift's case. To also lose hearing 
would have been for my friend, who relied on it so wholly 
for communication with the best around him, a complete 
eclipse. Not to hear the voice of his sister, who through 
life remained to him as his guardian angel, he told me ; 
not to hear the thrilling tones of loved friends, or the 
silvery laughter of children at play, would have been to 
him in his blindness a blanker groping, than it was, for the 
Infinite. Well might he value hearing, for it was the one 
divine avenue for him from earth to heaven. His hearing 
was perfect, and he judged quickly and much from mere 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 307 



tone of voice. The mere tone and its quality and intensity- 
had for him colour, form, expression, character, and infinite 
variety. It was for him as subtle a quality as the mind 
itself, and as characteristic as its colour to a ruby or 
emerald, or its brawling music to a Highland burn. 

All subjects came to him with equal readiness, 
the latest fiction or the newest theology were alike 
known to him. His memory was unerring. The 
tendencies of thought in any theological volume or 
the characters in any novel, however far back they 
had been read, were never forgotten. His memory 
gave him a large store of subjects to draw upon, 
and his active, restless mind continually passed 
from one to another. He had endless enjoyment 
in humorous sallies, whether from himself or others, 
and he had an ecstatic way of expressing fun, or 
his appreciation of fun, in bursts of laughter. In 
conversation he seldom monopolised the first or 
only place. "Many times I should have pre- 
ferred," says Dr. Hately Waddell, who saw much 
of him at North Berwick, during the last few 
summers of his life, when he was on holiday there, 
"that he did, but he had no desire to hold forth 
and to lecture, and never asked anyone to sit at 
his feet. All the same, his presence usually domin- 
ated the conversation by reason of some vigorous 
statement of a view, remarkable, unusual, or con- 
troversial. He conversed usually in a graphic and 
fragmentary way. He did not mind that conversa- 
tion should now and then flag, or that it started 
too soon on some new theme. Only once do I 
remember a subject consistently discussed for any 



308 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



length of time, and that was the subject of ' Eternal 
Life.'" 

Dr. Matheson naturally took the view that Eternal 
Life was not any divided portion of existence, separated 
from that which now is, but that it was already here in its 
/U true conditions, was continually expanding in new experi- 
ences, and would find death merely an incident in its 
course. Judgment, he said, was certain, but was not only 
retribution ; it was simply a new phase of life in which we 
should be compelled to take a proper relation to our true 
self, and to God. All men who having misspent their 
lives here should find themselves compelled to live the 
opposite kind of life there. As to Christ's second coming, 
that also he said was continually on the way ; it began at 
the resurrection. 

When at Innellan I was in the habit of visiting 
him of an evening at his manse. I was at the 
time a student of philosophy, and he manifested 
great interest in the lectures of Professor Edward 
Caird, under whom I was studying. Caird was 
the greatest living exponent of Hegelianism, and I 
was struck by Matheson's intimate knowledge of 
the system. He was in those days a strong 
believer in Hegelianism, and discussed its merits 
with much enthusiasm. Years afterwards he 
declared that he had modified his views somewhat, 
but he never liberated himself wholly from the 
grasp of the master. He discussed on such 
occasions subjects like the " Higher Criticism," 
and he made no secret of his opinions regarding 
it. He would say : 

I don't believe in it very much, from no mawkish 
feeling, for to tell the truth I am rather broad, but as 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 309 

a mere matter of historical fact I don't believe in it. My 
reason is that, from a minute study of the earliest prophets, 
Amos and Hosea, I am convinced beyond all question 
that there was a previous national religious law existing 
among the people. The very manner in which the 
prophets rebuked the people proves they were familiar 
with an existing code. Now, if the prophets had existed 
before that law their rebukes would have had no mean- 
ing. Then the whole question is, What are the factors 
or agents of evolution? Well, the answer of science is 
that there are really two factors in all revolutions, force 
and environment. I am willing to admit this, provided 
they will allow environment to include God Almighty. 
That makes all the difference in the world. Is God to 
be one of the agents in the process of evolution? My 
own opinion is that everything is produced by the com- 
bined action of force and environment, but in that 
environment I include not only earth and sea and sky, 
but also that great force which Spencer called the 
Unknowable, but which I call God. I quite believe that 
the revelation of Scripture is a progressive development, 
and that it grew out of historical surroundings of 
different ages. If the theory of the Higher Criticism 
was proved it would not in the least weaken my sense 
of the Bible's value. The real miracle of the Bible is, to 
my mind, the fact that out of a multitude of disconnected 
writings, originating from various sources and often 
proceeding from opposite tendencies, there has emerged 
as a result the picture of the Messianic life. 

Another subject which cropped up in such con- 
versations was " Evolution." " I wrote a book," he 
once said, "to show that evolution, if true, is quite 
compatible with orthodoxy, but I have since come 
to the conclusion that evolution is not true. 

I have no more fear of it than I ever had, but I am 
quite convinced that in, say, twenty years it will be 
regarded as an exploded heresy. \ T am an unbeliever in 
Drummondism. Henry Drummond triumphantly waves 



310 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



his hand — you can almost see him do it — over what he 
thinks is the strongest point in evolution, namely, 
similar things that in you and me are not of the slightest 
use, but in animals are of great utility ; his conclusion 
being, that we were animals first and that these things 
are survivals. My conclusion is not that at all ; I would 
be driven to it if no other explanation were reasonable. 
But if I want to make another staircase in this house 
there are two ways in which I can do it. I can begin 
afresh from the ground floor or I can start at the first 
landing. I say that God Almighty always adopts the 
latter method, to economise space and time ; He makes 
the new life start on the top of the old — not grow out of 
it ; and that accords with the whole analogy of nature. 
The first stair cannot itself get beyond the first landing, 
but another stair may be built upon it. I believe in the 
eternity of species ; that all differences existed from the 
beginning. I don't believe that first there was a trunk, 
and that this trunk broke up into branches. I believe 
the branches were first, and that they are gradually 
being welded into a trunk. I believe in individualism — 
individualism bound up into the life of God. I am con- 
vinced that in modern speculation the individual has not 
had justice done to him, and that the movement of the 
future will be towards individualism. 

As might be expected, he frequently discussed 
" Novels and Novelists." Present-day romance 
had a wonderful fascination for him. He once 
remarked to his friend, Mr. M'Kenzie Bell : 

" I like Sir Richard Calmady. It reveals a victory of 
mind over matter, even while at every moment the author 
is showing what a poor cripple Sir Richard is. Even that 
bad girl realises the influence of Sir Richard Calmady's 
force of character over his environment. One of my 
greatest dreads, when I was growing blind, was that thus 
I should lose affection — especially the affection of women 
— but I was wrong. In that way my blindness was a 
positive advantage, for it drew out their affection, though 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 311 



I have never been in love. Dr. Robertson Nicoll is most 
persistent in trying to persuade me to write a novel. I 
could do the plot, the characterisation, and the pathos. 
But I think I should fail where every tyro would succeed. 
I should fail in giving vitality to the scenes in which a 
knowledge of the verities of sight became necessary." I 
did my very utmost to disabuse his mind of this fixed 
idea, urging in the strongest way in my power that 
photographic realism was not at all a necessary adjunct 
to fiction. But from his manner I saw clearly that my 
arguments had produced no impression. 

I expressed my surprise that he, so great a prose poet, 
did not write more metrical poetry. Further, I pointed 
out that he, unlike a great prose poet, my friend Blackmore, 
had achieved in " O Love that wilt not let me go " and in 
a lesser degree in " God's Captive " the writing of noble 
verse-lyrics. He admitted to the full my contention that 
eminent poets of prose generally fail to become eminent 
poets of poetry. " My lyric ' O Love that wilt not let me 
go/ " he exclaimed, " is merely the exception that proves 
the rule. It came to me spontaneously, without conscious 
effort, and I have never been able to gain once more the 
same fervour in verse." 

From novels in general it was an easy passage 
to the " Religious Novel" in particular. He had 
no hesitation in expressing his disapproval of this 
form of literature. 

I am not in favour of it at all, for the simple reason 
that the novel with a purpose always conveys to my mind 
the impression that it is a sermon from the very outset, 
and the whole novel becomes a foregone conclusion. 
Now, I hold that the sole aim of a novel should be to 
amuse, as it should be the sole aim of the drama. 

I fully admit the transcendent genius of George 
Meredith, but I do not consider that his works come 
up to my ideal of what a novel should be. I should be 
disposed to say that the test of the true novel should be : 
what do the public like, for it is for them alone that the 



I 



312 DR. MATHESON AT HOME 



novel is intended. And judging from their verdict 
generally, and from that point of view, I would place 
Miss Braddon at the head of the list. She is a great 
favourite of mine, and I think I have read every book 
she ever wrote. 

Another subject on which he would converse 
was " Creeds and Confessions." He often said that 
he would never dream of altering these, but he 
would continue to fill them with new meaning. 
He frequently, says Dr. Waddell, discussed the 
subject with me at North Berwick. He held that 

the best way of broadening the religious thought of the 
time was by working from within the Church, by leavening 
the lump. There was nothing at all timid in this ; it was 
just his chosen method of bringing the Church into 
accord with the modern spirit. He knew that the people 
did not any longer completely believe in the old formulas, 
but he also knew that they clung to the old expressions, 
and he wisely resolved to disturb these expressions as 
little as possible, while his readers and hearers felt the 
breath of the new and wider meaning moving through 
them. He was, of course, essentially broad in his views, 
but he preferred that any broad interpretation of religious 
thought should filter gradually through old channels rather 
than it should burst the banks of traditional faith and 
bring commotion and destruction in its course. He 
believed the Church was saved in the present generation, 
not by the narrow-minded who forced others out of it for 
conscience' sake, but by the broad-minded who determined 
to stay within it for the same reason. Naturally, he also 
saw that once a hand is laid upon an historic creed no 
limit can ever be set to alterations. Within the historic 
creed you may permit a wise freedom of interpretation ; 
without the historic creed you lose all common standard. 
What one Assembly alters another Assembly may continue 
to alter, and within a few years or generations all standards 
become movable. This he could not abide, and he 



DR. MATHESON AT HOME 313 



maintained that the need of an historical document had 
not only been historically proved, but that the wise and 
prudent preachers would continue to uphold it. A 
widening of the "subscription-formula" was his method 
of freedom, rather than that of " creed-alteration." 

It was not often that he referred directly in the 
conversation to the person of Christ. Like all 
great natures he was diffident of speaking about 
what he loved most, but talking on one occasion 
on Spinoza's conception of God he was led on 
to express his views on this supreme subject. 
Spinoza's conception of God as the underlying 
Substance of the universe was too remote for him 
and too shadowy. He hardly admitted that the 
unknown, the unknowable, underlying Substance 
might be a perfected harmony in the heaven of 
heavens, making for perfection through an infinite 
process of specialisation. No, he would say : 

Not so much through a process of specialisation as 
through the Christ, the perfected Christ of Galilee. He 
and He alone is God made manifest to men, God's life, 
light, character, purpose brought very near to the heart of 
humanity, and through the utmost limits of thought itself. 

Without the Christ in humanity, not as a mere ideal 
but as the spiritual quickening essence of God performing 
a miracle of transformation in man, Nature for him was 
dark indeed. He would sometimes say : 

As a pure revelation of God Himself, the grandest 
the world has ever seen or ever will see, I bow down 
prostrate to the Christ of Nazareth. But for that 
revelation in Christ every thinking man or woman would 
be, I feel, a sad enough agnostic, and even without the 
reverence of Hume, the calm serene-minded thinker, so 
different a being from the witty Voltaire. 



CHAPTER XII 

LAST YEARS 

When Dr. Matheson had been eleven years 
minister of St. Bernard's he felt that the burden 
of his office was more than he could bear. He 
had at that time been thirty years a minister of 
the Church, and during the whole of that period 
he had laboured with a constancy and a zeal which 
it would be difficult to parallel. There was no 
failing in his powers, no falling off in popularity, 
no abatement in love for his work ; but the con- 
stant wear and tear of congregational and parochial 
duties began to tell. Besides, his increasing reputa- 
tion as a preacher, and the requests of editors for 
articles and publishers for books, drew him in 
another direction ; and the question came to be, 
Which call was to be obeyed ? Up till this time 
he had met every demand. He was convinced 
that he could do so no longer. He was not the 
man to attempt what he could not accomplish, or 
to neglect his immediate duty. He carefully con- 
sidered which road he should now travel, what 
work he could accomplish with satisfaction to him- 

314 



LAST YEARS 



315 



self and benefit to the public, and he decided that 
the course which would be truest to himself and 
in the best interests of all concerned was to resign 
St. Bernard's and to devote himself to special 
preaching and to literary effort. 

It may be worth while to reflect for a moment 
on the career in this relation of some of the most 
popular preachers of recent times. Take his im- 
mediate predecessor as the first preacher in Scot- 
land, Dr. John Caird. The distinguished Principal 
of Glasgow University, when at the height of his 
fame, deliberately and wisely chose those charges 
in which he would have a minimum of congrega- 
tional and parochial work. It is true that he 
was once minister of a city charge, Lady Yester's, 
Edinburgh, but he only remained in it for a very 
short time. The constant demands that were made 
upon him hastened his flight, and he chose the 
quiet country parish of Errol where he could develop 
his thoughts and mature his style in peace. When, 
again, he determined on a more public sphere 
of duty, he accepted a call to the Park Church, 
Glasgow, at that time without a parish and amid 
a population that made little call on his ministerial 
activity. Caird, it should also be remembered, had 
not up till this time published anything, with the 
exception of a volume of sermons. The five years 
during which he was minister of the Park Church, 
he confessed to a friend, were more than sufficient, 
and he was convinced that if he had continued much 
longer under the strain he would have broken down. 



316 



LAST YEARS 



Or take the great Chalmers. The world has 
never ceased to hear of his parochial activity when 
he was minister of the Tron and St. John's, 
Glasgow. It may be true that he accomplished 
more in this relation than any minister of the 
Church of Scotland before or since. He organised 
his Session ; he manned his Parish ; he founded 
schools ; he relieved the poor : but with the ex- 
ception of his Session and the agencies necessary 
for carrying on his educational work he had no 
other organisations. Chalmers, so far as I can 
gather, confined his visitation to his parish. When 
the spirit moved him he would call upon the 
inmates of a tenement, and now and again he 
would gather them together to be addressed. No 
one can deny his enormous labours, but they were 
on the whole more congenial and less exacting than 
Matheson's. Nor was he hampered in his work by 
the multiplicity of agencies, which, however artificial 
they might be, were a tradition in St. Bernard's ; 
and upon their success more than upon the dynamic 
power of the pulpit some good people thought 
the salvation of the church and parish depended. 
Chalmers found eight years of Glasgow to be 
quite enough, and he was glad to accept, at the 
end of that period, an invitation to the Chair 
of Moral Philosophy in the University of St. 
Andrews. 

It may not be without interest to cross the 
Border and to allow our eyes to rest for a moment 
upon one of the greatest preachers of a past genera- 



LAST YEARS 



317 



tion, I mean Dr. Joseph Parker. Matheson had 
a sincere admiration for Parker. He told me on 
one occasion that Parker was the greatest preacher 
he had ever heard, and the tribute which, at his 
death, he paid to his memory in the columns of 
The British Weekly was one of the finest things 
he ever wrote. Nor was Parker without his in- 
fluence on Matheson. It has always seemed to 
me that the minister of the City Temple was to 
a certain extent responsible for a change in Mathe- 
son's preaching which characterised his Edinburgh 
days. It was during his incumbency of St. Ber- 
nard's that Matheson delighted his hearers with 
graphic pictures, startled them with semi-humorous 
asides, and set their souls on fire with sudden and 
unexpected flashes of original thought. A certain 
spontaneity and freedom, which made the preacher's 
personality all the more attractive, marked Mathe- 
son's later preaching. It may have been Parkers 
style that gave him confidence. It was all there long 
before, but the fact of having found it in another may 
not have been without its effect in causing him to 
have respect for his own true self, and to allow 
the spirit that was in him to have free play. Well, 
what demands were made upon Parker as minister 
of the City Temple ? They were purely of a 
preaching nature. He lived at Hampstead, miles 
away from what may euphemistically be called 
the scenes of his labours. He only appeared upon 
them about twice a week, on the Thursday and on 
the Sunday, when he delivered his sermons. He 



318 LAST YEARS 

had no parish to attend to, no calls upon him for 
daily visitation and nightly services. He was 
master of his fate. He was a great preacher, and 
the conditions under which he worked were of such 
a nature as to allow his special gift to be cultivated 
without hindrance, and his message to be delivered 
with a fervour unimpaired by harassing and dis- 
tracting toil. 

It will be one of the chief glories of George 
Matheson that, while as a preacher and as a writer 
he may claim equal rank with those great names 
just mentioned, he at the same time, and for a 
longer period than any of them, discharged faith- 
fully and successfully the duties of a parish minister 
in a congregation which at one time under him 
numbered nearly two thousand members, and in a 
parish composed for the most part of poor people 
whose needs had to be ministered to. And he was 
blind ! They had every faculty unimpaired, but he 
was denied the power of vision ; yet in spite of it 
he toiled on, attending to every duty, discharging 
every task which his office demanded, preaching 
sermons Sunday after Sunday which drew admiring 
crowds from far and near, and publishing books 
which circulated over the world and were read by 
thousands. It is no exaggeration to claim this 
as one of the most unique ministries, not only in 
the Church of Scotland but in the Church of Christ, 
not only in our generation but during the Christian 
era. 

Having thus determined on the resignation of 



LAST YEARS 



319 



his charge, he addressed the following letter to the 
Session Clerk of St. Bernard's : — 

December 28, 1896. 

I have long felt that I could do more good to the 
Church if freed from special parochial work. I have 
given the matter a very lengthened, a very earnest, and 
a very careful consideration, and I have come at last, 
with absolute conviction, to the definite and final resolu- 
tion to resign the charge as at Whitsunday. I intend 
that my ministry shall close on the second Sunday of 
May — the eleventh anniversary of my incumbency of this 
church — after which the supply of the pulpit will devolve 
on the Session. 

It is not too much to say that the news of 
Dr. Matheson's intention fell upon the congregation 
with a shock of surprise. Immediate efforts were 
at once made to induce him to reconsider his 
decision. Pressure was brought to bear upon him 
from office-bearers and congregation alike. It is 
well known that the matter weighed heavily upon 
him and caused him great anxiety. His own desire 
was to resign ; the earnest wish of his people was 
that he should remain. They did not wish to lose 
him as their minister, and they feared that if the 
ties which bound him to St. Bernard's were severed 
there would be a marked decline in membership. 
After much hesitation, and somewhat unwillingly, 
he at last yielded to the overtures made to him, 
and at a meeting of Kirk Session, held on the 
twelfth of January, he intimated that he withdrew his 
resignation, and intended to apply to the Presbytery 
for a colleague and successor. 



320 



LAST YEARS 



The arrangement come to was, that he should 
be freed from all parochial duty, and set at liberty 
to devote himself to preaching and to literary work. 
This indeed was an arrangement that ought to have 
been arrived at long before. He had on his own 
account, a year or two previously, engaged as his 
personal assistant an ordained Minister of the 
Church who relieved him of certain duties. Had 
this taken place earlier, indeed from the very first, 
and with the full concurrence of his Kirk Session 
and the Congregation, his services would have been 
at their disposal for a longer period, and his life 
might have been spared. The compromise came 
too late in the day. The Church of Scotland had 
no place for a man like him. He was compelled 
to conform to the use and wont of the parochial 
system, excellent in itself ; but its very excellence 
when universalised is apt to destroy its efficiency. 
A good system is all the better when it is elastic, 
and leaves room for development on other lines 
than its own. 

Dr. Matheson, in approaching the Presbytery, 
wrote as follows : 

January 13, 1897. 

After eleven years of laborious work as minister of the 
Church and Parish of St. Bernard's, and having regard to 
the physical disability under which I labour, I desire now 
to be relieved from all parochial duties and work, except 
preaching. I am prepared to give up the whole stipend, 
retaining merely the endowment of £\20. Should the 
Presbytery not see their way to appoint a colleague and 
successor, I tender the resignation of my office of Minister 
of St. Bernard's. 



LAST YEARS 321 

The Presbytery appointed a committee to confer 
with Dr. Matheson and the Kirk Session, with the 
result that the committee reported that it would be 
for the advantage of the congregation that Dr. 
Matheson should continue their minister, and that 
an assistant and successor should be appointed. 
After sundry procedure the Rev. J. J. Drummond, 
B.D., now minister of Jedburgh, was elected, and 
appointed as his colleague and successor. The last 
meeting of St. Bernard's Kirk Session, presided 
over by Dr. Matheson, was held on the 3rd October 
1897, Mr. Drummond's induction taking place on 
the 23rd of the same month. Dr. Matheson was 
fortunate in his new^colleague, who had been brought 
up under his own eye in St. Bernard's, and between 
them, during the two years in which they worked 
together, there was the greatest cordiality and 
goodwill. Mr. Drummond, referring to his connec- 
tion with Dr. Matheson as a student and a minister, 
• bears ample testimony to his high appreciation and 
deep reverence for his friend and mentor. He says : 

My first association with Dr. Matheson was when I 
was a member of his Bible-class. The class met on a 
week night, and was attended by young men, intelligent 
artisans, and some divinity students. He lectured on the 
opening chapters of Genesis. The lectures were eminently 
suggestive and fresh, even for him. He was then at the 
full maturity of his powers and at the height of his 
popularity in Edinburgh. In these, my divinity student 
days, he showed me great kindness. I was often in his 
house, had many a smoke and a chat with him in that 
spacious study, which was more like a business room than 
a library, with the outlook into slummy Dean Street. He 
21 



322 



LAST YEARS 



did not care for any assistance in rilling or lighting his 
pipe. He spoke always with great animation, mostly 
about theological or literary subjects. In 1891 I was 
elected to the parish of Longformacus, in Berwickshire. 
Two years afterwards Dr. Matheson preached at a special 
service there in my newly renovated church. The long 
summer afternoon we spent at the Manse, and I read 
aloud to him passages of Anglican theology. 

During the following years I saw him only at rare 
intervals, but in July 1897 I was elected as his colleague 
in St. Bernard's. It was very far from my wish to 
exchange the pastoral simplicity and peace of a beautiful 
moorland parish for the work and worry of a city charge, 
but I was unanimously elected, and I knew that I could 
fit into his ways and make things easy for him as an 
entire stranger could not have done. It was eminently 
desirable that Dr. Matheson's services should be retained 
to the church, but this could not be unless he had a 
colleague in whom he had confidence, and who had some 
tact and understanding. He received me with the greatest 
heartiness and kindness ; indeed, he rather overwhelmed 
me at the induction dinner with a eulogy far beyond the 
deserts, either of myself or of anyone who might have 
been elected as his colleague. 

Then I started on the actual work of the parish. The 
arrangement was that we were to take the church services 
alternately. I was to be Moderator of Kirk Session, to 
teach the communicants' classes, Bible-class, etc., and do 
all the visitation and pastoral work. The arrangement 
worked out most harmoniously. Dr. Matheson seemed 
to have but one thought : to put me forward and to slip 
into the background himself. 

The arrangement thus amicably entered into 
was cordially carried out for two years, but on the 
15th June 1899 Dr. Matheson wrote the following 
letter to the Session Clerk of St. Bernard's : — 

The pressure of other work compels me to sever the 
remaining thread which connects me with St. Bernard's. 



LAST YEARS 323 



I wish to take this opportunity of stating how cordial have 
been my relations with Mr. Drummond. We have lived 
on terms of unclouded affection, and we have never had a 
difference even of opinion. He has kept the church at 
the zenith of prosperity, and I leave it in his hands with 
perfect confidence. As I do not wish to resume the 
charge after the autumn holiday, I desire my resignation 
to take effect from the end of July. 

A similar letter was written by him to the Clerk 
of the Edinburgh Presbytery. It was considered 
by that body on the 28th of June, and on the 26th 
of July 1899 the Presbytery accepted Dr. Matheson's 
resignation. Resolutions passed by St. Bernard's 
Kirk Session and Congregation, with reference to 
Dr. Matheson's resignation, were read. The Kirk 
Session testified to the most cordial relations that 
had existed between them and Dr. Matheson 
during his thirteen years' ministry, and to the great 
measure of prosperity that had characterised the 
congregation during that time. They earnestly 
hoped that he would long be spared in health to 
render further service to the Church. The Con- 
gregation likewise expressed in their resolution 
their deep regret at the loss they had sustained, 
their high appreciation of his services, and their 
earnest hope that he would long continue in the 
enjoyment of his well-earned rest. At the meeting 
at which these resolutions were read deputations 
from the Kirk Session and Congregation also 
appeared. Several of the members addressed the 
Presbytery, and the remarks of all were indicative 
of the warm relations that existed between Dr. 



324 



LAST YEARS 



Matheson and his parishioners. One of the deputies 
said Dr. Matheson could not retire from the love, 
respect, and esteem of his people. Another, who 
was deeply moved, characterised their sorrow as 
too deep for words. A third said, he would like to 
inform the Presbytery of a single fact, and one that 
was very interesting for the members to know, 
namely, that during the thirteen years of Dr. 
Matheson's ministry in St. Bernard's he had never 
preached the same sermon twice to his congregation. 
The Presbytery in accepting his resignation did so 
with equal regret, which was somewhat mitigated 
by the hope that a man so gifted and so active 
would not altogether be lost to the Church. 

The public press could not be silent on a 
matter that was of interest, not only to St. Bernard's 
congregation and the Church of Scotland, but to the 
Church of Christ at large. Numerous comments 
appeared in their columns on the event, and par- 
ticularly on the fact that during the whole of his 
thirteen years' ministry Dr. Matheson had never 
preached to his congregation the same sermon twice. 
This was generally regarded as something very 
unique. And the same feeling of surprise was 
experienced when, a few months afterwards, Dr. 
Matheson delivered a farewell address to his con- 
gregation, which was held on all hands to be the 
most remarkable of its kind ever listened to. The 
gathering took place in the Freemasons' Hall, 
George Street, on the 17th November 1899. The 
spacious building was filled to its utmost capacity. 



LAST YEARS 



325 



Farewell presentations were made to Dr. Matheson 

and to his sister, Miss Matheson. Dr. Matheson, 

after returning thanks in his own name and in that 

of his sister, said : 

I come to bid you one of the most remarkable fare- 
wells that was ever uttered. Nearly all things that say 
" Good-bye " say it before starting. When the spring 
intends to leave us it presents us beforehand with a 
primrose; when the summer purposes to quit it sends 
us a present of short days. But my farewell has inverted 
the order. I have first gone away and then come back 
to say " Good-bye." I have come too late for leave- 
taking. I have brought my primrose to your completed 
year. Why have I done this ? Through unfeelingness ? 
Nay, through excess of feeling. I wanted to say " Good- 
morning " instead of " Good-night." I wanted to meet 
you when the first pain on either side was dulled by the 
passing hours. How could you think I was indifferent 
to you? Have I not been with you for thirteen years 
in sunshine and in shadow ? — and the sunshine has been 
more than the shadow. Have I not caught the spray 
of your baptismal fonts? Have I not heard your 
marriage-bells? Have I not seen your courtships and 
your courtesies? Have I not brought the grapes of 
Eshcol to your hours of sickness? Have not your 
children in my presence flowered into manhood, into 
womanhood? Have not your middle-aged men grown 
white with the winters' snow? I have been with you 
in your Canas, in your Nains, in your Bethanys. The 
cord between us has been an unbroken cord, and it is 
still undissolved ; therefore it is that I said not " Good- 
night " but " Good-morning." 

I came a taper amid the torches. My place was down 
in the valley — the Stockbridge valley. Do not think it 
was less onerous on that account. There, where the 
Water of Leith threads its devious way, you will meet 
humanity unveiled. There you will see man outside the 
stage, with the lights suppressed and the music silent, 



326 



LAST YEARS 



and the dancing ceased — man unconventional, man 
natural, man struggling hand to hand with life's poverty 
and toil. These were the masses before which I stood 
— an atom in the crowd. It was a tragic spectacle; it 
was blind Samson with his hands upon the gates of 
Gaza. The Philistines laughed ; but I think I lifted 
these gates one inch. And I think that next to the 
strength of God, and next again to your kind co-opera- 
tion, I was indebted to my own weakness. These sons 
of toil said, " Here is a man with an environment no 
less unfavourable than ours — barred by every gate of 
fortune, yet refusing to give in — overtaken by the night, 
yet confident of the morning. I say that such a spectacle 
was a spectacle fitted to stimulate the toiling Stockbridge 
masses : the appearing of a working-man who by his 
own hammer and by God's arm should cleave his way 
through opposing obstacles and plant his feet on a solid 
shore. This has been my Gospel, this has been my 
message ; by this shall I stand or fall. My sermons may 
have flown over your heads like the bird of Paradise; 
but my life has been level with your own — an obstructed 
life, a circumscribed life, but a life of boundless sanguine- 
ness, a life of quenchless hopefulness, a life which has 
beat persistently against the cage of circumstance, and 
which even at the time of abandoned work has said not 
" Good-night " but " Good-morning." 

Dr. Matheson's former assistants, eight in 
number, all of them now occupying the position 
of parish ministers in the Church of Scotland, 
determined not to be behind the congregation 
of St. Bernard's in showing their appreciation of 
their late chief. Towards the end of October 
they invited him to a luncheon in the Balmoral 
Hotel, and presented him with an illuminated 
address which testified to the kindness which he 
had shown them and the enthusiasm with which 



LAST YEARS 



327 



he had inspired them. Between them there had 
been the most cordial relations, and the fact that 
within the brief period of thirteen years the one 
succeeded the other so rapidly in their promotion 
to parishes, was a proof of his influence and of 
the readiness with which he exercised it. Indeed, 
there was no class more deeply attached to Dr. 
Matheson than the young ministers of the Church. 
He was always prepared to welcome them, and 
to give them every encouragement and assistance 
in their work. There are not a few who now 
occupy important positions who owe their pro- 
motion to him. The concluding paragraph of the 
address testifies to the whole-hearted devotion of 
his former assistants, and their admiration of his 
character and work : 

But while we thus gladly recognise your widespread 
influence, we especially desire to acknowledge our own 
indebtedness to you as a teacher and a friend. When 
we came to you it was at a period in our lives when we 
were anxious to impart the truth we knew, but lacked 
the knowledge of how best we could do so. From you we 
received instruction and inspiration. You at once opened 
to us the wondrous possibilities of thought, and exemplified 
to us the attractive methods of expression. That we were 
privileged, during shorter or longer periods, to enjoy your 
pulpit ministry, your private and social intercourse, your 
kindly and helpful advice, we are grateful to the Giver of 
all good gifts. 

The first-fruits of Dr. Matheson's retirement 
was his Studies of the Portrait of Christ. It 
marked a new and final stage in his theological 
development, and proved the most popular of all his 



328 



LAST YEARS 



books. The subject had long lain in his mind. It 
was one that many thought would have attracted 
him at a much earlier period of his literary life, but 
it was wisely ordered that he should take it in hand 
at a time when his thought was ripest and his 
experience most matured. He was fond of treating 
his themes and characters in the order of their 
development, and he himself, as has already been 
pointed out, was subject to the same law that he 
found governing others. It was only towards the 
close of his life that he came to the study of Him 
who is the Life ; at all events, that he felt com- 
missioned to give to the world the fruits of a study 
which, in very truth, was life-long. Dr. Matheson 
began as a theologian ; he developed into the 
apologist. He thereafter took up the role of the 
biblical scholar and the historian of religious 
thought. In all his works there is to be found the 
imaginative glow which ever and anon blossomed 
into poetic song, and that devotional spirit which 
found expression in his series of Meditations ; but 
it was only after he had traversed the whole course 
of Christian thought that he ended where many 
begin. The worship of Christ, which the young 
convert is asked to regard as the first step in the 
new life, was, in a sense, the last in the career of 
Dr. Matheson. I do not desire to be misunder- 
stood. That worship pervaded his life, but it was 
only towards its close that it ripened into full 
maturity and took possession of his whole nature. 
If in his earlier years his ambition was to find in 



LAST YEARS 



329 



Christianity a solution of the problems which vex 
human reason, in his later years it was his absorb- 
ing desire to find in Christ Himself the solace of 
the human heart and the satisfaction of the human 
spirit. His own development, like that of his 
Master, was also in its nature a descent. It 
witnessed the fall of his spirit from the heights of 
theology to the prosaic plains of religion ; from the 
effort to cleave the skies on the wings of thought to 
the patient sitting at the feet of the Master. • It 
was there, at last, that he found perfect peace. The 
Christ of Prophecy, the Christ of History, and the 
Christ of Aspiration had become to him the Christ 
of Experience. 

The book was issued in two volumes ; the first 
appeared in the autumn of 1899 and the second in 
that of 1900. In the Preface to the first volume he 
said that if it proved a success he would continue 
his studies to their close. Its success was, for a 
book of the kind, almost unprecedented. Eleven 
thousand copies were sold within the year. Its 
reception by the press was equally hearty ; the 
reviews were enthusiastic. One or two complained 
of the title of the book, and wished that he had 
simply called it a " Life of Christ." But he had 
good reason for his choice, and in the Preface to 
the second volume he replied to the critics. " By 
the Title of this Book," he says, " I do not mean 
a study of the different Portraits which have been 
drawn of Christ, nor even a comparison of the 
Pictures drawn by the Four Evangelists. The 



330 



LAST YEARS 



Portrait of Christ is to me the united impression 
produced upon the heart by these four delineations. 
My office is not that of a critic, nor that of a 
creator, nor that of an amender, but simply that of 
an interpreter ; I study the Picture as it is." 

The first volume embraces that period in the 
ministry of our Lord which ends with the Feeding 
of the Five Thousand. This miracle the author 
very aptly characterises as the " First Communion," 
and it is the climax in the first stage of our Lord's 
work. That stage has as its keynote sympathy 
for the multitude. During it we see Christ giving 
Himself to man and finding joy in the giving. In 
the second period of His ministry, which closes with 
His death, Christ's aim was to induce the multitude 
to give themselves to Him. In His apparent failure 
to accomplish this lay His sorrow. The tragedy of 
His life is found in the unresponsiveness of man. 

In filling in his conception of the ministry of 
Christ, as thus indicated, Dr. Matheson pays due 
heed to historical accuracy. It is quite true that he 
does not treat the records of the life of Christ after 
the manner of the modern historical school. His 
is no dry-as-dust production. He believes that 
the possession of ideas, as well as the knowledge of 
facts, forms a necessary equipment of a biographer. 
But he is careful that his ideas should illumine his 
facts, and not overcloud them. In the opening 
chapters the author deals, in an original and 
luminous manner, with such subjects as the 
" Messianic Hopes of the Jews " and the " Baptist's 



LAST YEARS 



331 



Conception of the Christ." It is in the sixth 
chapter, however, that he gets to the heart of the 
subject. To the question, What is the plan of 
Christ's life ? he boldly replies Christ had no plan. 
By this he means that our Lord did not arrange 
beforehand the details of His ministry. He had in 
His mind, from the very first, the aim to be the Holy 
One of God. But He allowed each day and hour to 
determine how that aim should be realised. God, 
says Dr. Matheson, had a plan for the Son, and the 
Son in yielding Himself to the will of the Father 
carried out that plan without determining its 
contents in advance. Its general scope, however, 
the author would find in St. Paul's conception of 
Christ's work, which is recorded in the passage that 
says, " Let this mind be in you which was in Christ 
Jesus who, though in the form of God, thought 
equality with God a thing not to be snatched at, 
but emptied Himself, and took upon Himself the 
form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of 
men ; and being recognised in the fashion of man, 
he humbled Himself and became obedient unto 
death, even the death of the cross." This passage 
gives the keynote to Dr. Matheson's conception of 
our Lord's life. For he holds, in this matter, St. 
Paul to be a better guide than Renan, Schenkel, or 
Seeley. Such a philosophy of the life of Jesus, he 
remarks, is the description of a ladder of descent. 
In the chapters that follow he works out this con- 
ception in detail, not, however, in a hard-and-fast 
manner, for that would be to reduce his work to a 



332 



LAST YEARS 



piece of mechanism. All the same he believes that 
the sequence which the apostle sketches will be 
found to follow, if not the steps, at least the 
principle of the life of Jesus. In each event which 
leads up to the First Communion, with which the 
volume closes, when our Lord's sympathy with the 
wants of men received its full manifestation, the 
human and philanthropic spirit of the Master is 
seen to grow ever deeper and wider. 

It is at this point that the second volume takes 
up the story and continues it to its close. The 
pivot on which this period in the life of Christ 
turns is the thought of His death. This is the 
point which Dr. Matheson selects as the central 
theme of the volume, and he has shown a true 
instinct in doing so. Nowhere else can one find a 
study of the "final catastrophe," as it has been 
called, so fresh, so profound, and on the whole so 
hopeful ; which indeed transforms death from being 
a "final catastrophe" into a "final triumph." 

It is impossible for the student of the life of 
Christ to read Dr. Matheson's pages without 
challenging a comparison between him and the 
greatest of those who have treated the same 
subject. Since the day when St. Bonaventura, 
early in the thirteenth century, wrote, outside of 
the sacred canon, the first Vita Christi, more Lives 
than can be numbered have been written of Christ. 
But for the present generation two studies stand 
out as of special interest — the EcceHomo of Professor 
Seeley, and The Training of the Twelve by Pro- 



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fessor Bruce. Each of these works, in addition 
to its great power as a whole, contains a single 
gem, which of itself would be sufficient to redeem 
it, supposing it needed redemption, which it 
does not. The gem of Ecce Homo is the story 
which describes the repentance of a woman — a 
story which has gone to the heart of Christendom, 
and which has given to Christian art the figure 
of the Magdalene. The gem of The Training of 
the Twelve is the anointing at Bethany. Severe 
though the test may be, Dr. Matheson in each 
case supplies us with a new gem which is worthy 
of being set beside them. Indeed, the book as a 
whole is richer than any that he ever wrote, in 
originality, in depth, and in beauty of expression. 
A spirit of calmness pervades it ; there is a sure- 
ness of touch in the thought as well as in the 
style. It bristles with suggestions ; it is bold and 
yet reverent, deep yet devotional. He might well 
call it Studies of the Portrait of Christ, for it is 
a veritable picture gallery in which one loves to 
linger. The Character, whose lineaments he traces, 
is depicted in every stage of His development, and 
in every form and fashion of H is unique career. The 
lines may be few, but they are drawn by a master- 
hand. Each chapter introduces a fresh aspect and 
shows a new feature. Round the central Figure are 
grouped the leading members of the League of 
Pity ; filling in the background are the sisters of 
Bethany, the sorrowing Magdalene, the scowling 
Pharisee, and the promiscuous crowd. Nineteen 



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centuries of thought and progress combine, in the 
hands of Dr. Matheson, to re-create the first century, 
and to give us back the Christ of religion, whom 
the Christ of theology had taken away. 

The hope was expressed by the members of the 
Presbytery of Edinburgh, when Dr. Matheson gave 
in his resignation as minister of St. Bernard's, 
that his services as a preacher would not be lost 
to the Church. He amply fulfilled that hope. 
One of the burdens of his office as the incumbent 
of a stated charge was that he had, in addition to 
his immediate duties, to meet the constant and re- 
peated demands made upon him for special services 
by ministers and congregations of nearly all the 
Protestant denominations in the land. He did his 
best to meet their wishes, and he endeavoured 
once a month to preach in other churches than 
his own. After he was freed from St. Bernard's 
he responded to these requests more readily, and 
for the first few years he was active in preaching 
special sermons in different parts of the country. 
There was one class in particular that loved to 
hear him. During the first year of his ministry in 
Edinburgh he was invited to deliver inaugural 
addresses to the theological students of three such 
different Colleges as the Edinburgh University, 
the United Presbyterian Hall, and the Free 
Church College of Glasgow. He was a prime 
favourite with Scottish students, and if there was 
one University city in which he was more popular 
than another it was Aberdeen. He visited it on 



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several occasions, and was always gladly welcomed. 
The most important of these was when, at the 
invitation of the University, he came to deliver one 
of the Murtle Lectures. This was in December 
1 90 1, and Professor Nicol, who presided, has 
furnished me with the following interesting account 
of Dr. Matheson's address : — 

I wish your request to say something about Dr. 
Matheson's pulpit appearances in Aberdeen had fallen 
into more competent hands. But I had a sincere admir- 
ation of his genius, and as a colleague for several years in 
the Presbytery of Edinburgh I was proud to win his 
friendship and to retain it to the end. 

That he was exceedingly popular in Aberdeen was 
shown by the large congregations which assembled to hear 
him on the rare occasions when he fulfilled public 
engagements in the city. His published works had made 
his name familiar among all denominations, and among 
Church of Scotland people he had long been known 
through his charming meditations and poems and con- 
tributions to the Magazines. And of course his great 
hymn, " O Love that wilt not let me go," had long been in 
the Scottish Hymnal, and latterly had found a place also 
in the Church Hymnary. 

It was at one of our University Chapel Summer Services 
in 1900 that I heard him first in Aberdeen. He had 
officiated at least once on some public occasion before, and 
had then been the guest of Professor Matthew Hay. So 
attached had he become to Dr. and Mrs. Hay, and so 
much did he feel at home with them, that on his later 
visits to the city he took up his abode with them, And it 
need not be said that the esteem he had conceived for 
them was warmly reciprocated. There was a large 
attendance of students, considering that it was summer, 
when a much smaller proportion of them are at classes ; 
and, with as large a representation of the general public 
as our beautiful chapel could admit, he had a crowded 
audience. 



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The preacher gave them of his very best. His opening 
prayer was very striking and uplifting, and, though it was 
short, it awakened reverence and aroused expectation. 
His text was in Romans v. 20, "Where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound " ; a subject wholly con- 
genial to his own sanguine temperament, and on which 
he based an appeal to his student audience to cherish the 
optimism of youth as one of their dearest possessions. As 
he closed a remarkably fresh and impressive discourse, 
delivered with that action of the uplifted right arm so 
characteristic of his manner, he expressed his pride at being 
invited to preach one of the University Sermons, and 
showed how highly he esteemed the occasion. 

His next appearance in Aberdeen was in December 
1 90 1, when he was invited by the University to deliver one 
of the Murtle Lectures. These Lectures are five or six in 
the course of each winter session, and are delivered in the 
Mitchell Hall, Marischal College. Among the Lecturers 
of recent years have been Moderators and past Moderators 
of the Presbyterian Church, the Bishops of Salisbury and 
Stepney, Canons Scott Holland and Hensley Henson, 
Professor Margoliouth of Oxford, the late Principal Rainy, 
and the late Dr. John Watson (Ian Maclaren), and even 
laymen like Professors M'Kendrick and our own Sir 
William Ramsay. For one labouring under Dr. Matheson's 
physical limitations a lecture, usually occupying a full 
hour or more, must have been a trying ordeal, but to the 
end he held on his way with the ease and lucidity and 
brilliance which marked his briefest meditation. His 
subject was " The problem of Job's patience." There was 
a crowded attendance in the large Hall, every seat being 
filled, and many standing in the passages, and even 
without in the adjoining picture gallery. When the great 
congregation joined in singing, as they did with unusual 
heartiness, the hymn " O Love that wilt not let me go," 
one could see that the preacher himself was moved. 
When the lecture began, the subject which in less 
experienced hands might have become commonplace was 
opened up with an originality and power which at once 
arrested the audience. The preacher found in the 



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literature of the world four typical notes of despair, — first 
and deepest that of Omar Khayyam, next that of the Book 
of Ecclesiastes, then that of Pascal in his Thoughts^ 
and finally that of the Book of Job. To expound the 
significance of this last, he set himself with a wealth of 
illustration the most effective, and at the same time left 
the impression upon some of his hearers that the most 
pathetic touches were derived from his own experience. 
It was an effort worthy to be ranked among the most 
successful delivered under the auspices of the Murtle 
Bequest. 

The relations established between Dr. Matheson and 
the University of Aberdeen were of the most cordial 
character. He had been nominated by the Senatus for 
the Gifford Lectureship, but had declined. In 1902 the 
Senatus conferred upon him the degree of LL.D., an 
honour which gave him immense gratification. When he 
died, in the course of last year, we felt that there had gone 
from us a unique personality, and one of the greatest 
ornaments on our Roll of Honorary Graduates. 

His friend, Professor Cowan, wrote a letter to 
Miss Matheson on the evening on which the 
address was delivered, in which he says : 

Your brother was in excellent form and voice, and gave 
us a brilliant lecture. The Hall was crowded, including 
the passages filled with standers, and a large number who 
came fairly punctual had to go away, owing to the failure 
of standing room. The audience listened with rapt 
attention. 

Dr. Nicol refers to two special honours con- 
ferred on Dr. Matheson by the University of 
Aberdeen. They offered him, in 1899, tne Gifford 
Lectureship, and in 1902 they conferred upon 
him the degree of LL.D. It was a disappoint- 
ment to many when he declined the Lectureship. 
It was the greatest gift in the hands of the 
22 



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Senatus, and one that is only bestowed upon 
the most distinguished men. Many wondered 
why he declined this honour. I remember 
speaking to him about it at the time, and ex- 
pressing the general regret at his inability to 
deliver the lecture. He replied that the reason 
was one of health. His doctor had forbidden 
him. This was the very year in which he had 
resigned St. Bernard's. He may not have been 
aware at the time of any failing of health, but 
there is no doubt that this fact may have had not 
a little to do with his determination to relinquish 
his charge. The great strain under which he 
had worked for so many years, and the worries 
attendant on the arrangements which led to the 
appointment of a colleague, told upon him, and he 
now began for the first time to realise that 
physically he was not the man that he used to be. 
The question of the lectures themselves could 
not have seriously troubled him, for he had 
already in manuscript a full course on the very 
subject on which he would have had to speak. 
This volume was evidently meant for publication, 
but it has never seen the light ; it is on Natural 
Religion. 

The other honour conferred upon him was the 
degree of LL.D. He was greatly gratified at this 
recognition, especially on the part of a University 
that was not his own. But to do Glasgow justice, 
it was an open secret that the Senate had resolved 
that very spring to bestow upon him the same 



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degree, but it was anticipated by Aberdeen, much 
to the regret of the Professors, for they felt that 
his own University would honour itself in honouring 
him. Principal Story, in particular, was anxious to 
make every reparation for Glasgow's tardiness, and 
if both had lived but a little longer it was the 
intention of the Principal to propose Matheson for 
the degree of D.D. Many years previously, in 
1890, he had been made a Fellow of the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, so that at the comparatively 
early age of fifty-nine he was the recipient of all 
the Academic honours that his native country could 
bestow upon him. 

The other occasion on which Dr. Matheson 
appeared to greatest advantage as a special 
preacher was when, in October of 1903, he delivered 
the annual sermon in Brunswick Chapel, Leeds, in 
connection with the Wesleyan Missionary Society. 
This was not by any means the first occasion on 
which he had appeared in an English pulpit. He 
had previously preached at Bradford and other 
places ; indeed, he was as much sought after by 
congregations across the Border as in his own 
land. The hold which he had upon the members 
of other communions was most remarkable. He 
was as popular with other denominations as with 
his own. There was no church, for example, in 
which he preached more frequently than in Free 
St. George's, Edinburgh, and for Dr. Alexander 
Whyte he had the greatest admiration and regard. 
The esteem was mutual. They were the two 



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outstanding ministers of Edinburgh. For origin- 
ality of thought and freshness of treatment they 
had no equal. Dr. Whyte, on the appearance of 
the Studies of the Portrait of Christ, sent the 
following letter to Dr. Matheson : — ■ 

Balmacara, Loch Alsh, N.B. 

Dear Dr. Matheson, — On the last day of my Loch 
Alsh holiday, a cold wet day, I have read your brilliant 
Portrait of Christ, at a long down-sitting and pen in 
hand. And now I sit down to put my notes of your 
book in order for future inspiration and use. It is a true 
test of a work of genius that its touch fertilises the mind 
of the reader, and my mind and my heart have both been 
fertilised to-day over your deep and beautiful book. — With 
warm love and honour, Alexander Whyte. 

In a communication from Dr. Whyte, he says : 
" I never heard Dr. Matheson preach, though more 
than once he took my place in my absence ; but 
always when he preached for me, there was an 
outburst of praise among my people, most 
unanimous and most thankful. I never could 
account for the extraordinary kind words he 
would employ about myself, or rather, I always 
accounted for them as the outcome of his extra- 
ordinary deep and warm heart." 

His discourse at Leeds w T as on the " Boundless- 
ness of the Bible," based on 2 Timothy ii. 9, " The 
Word of God is not bound." It was a Missionary 
sermon, and one of the most characteristic that he 
ever delivered. "The attraction of a great 
preacher and the power of the pulpit," says a 
correspondent, " were shown on Wednesday evening, 



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when, in spite of pouring rain, people came from 
all parts to hear the annual Missionary sermon in 
Brunswick Chapel. The sermon was an extra- 
ordinary deliverance, in treatment as in manner. 
Dr. Matheson's striking delivery and vibrant voice, 
added to his original way of dealing with his 
subject, at once arrested attention and kept it 
undiminished till the close." The Wesleyan 
Church, as a whole, had a great regard for Dr. 
Matheson. One of its leading ministers has 
written to the effect : 

I thought probably you would be pleased to know, in 
so strenuous a Church as the Primitive Methodist Church, 
Dr. Matheson was greatly loved and read. I was sur- 
prised to discover how strong was the devotion in our 
Church to this prophet-seer, and it has given me no little 
joy that there is the clearest evidence that Matheson's 
soul has passed into many souls in our Church, and he 
lives again in lives made better by his presence. 

In 1 90 1, the year following the publication of 
the second volume of his Portrait of Christ, he 
published two books, Times of Retirement and The 
Sceptre without a Sword. The first was a volume 
of meditations, the second a Christmas idyll. I 
well remember the inception of his Times of Re- 
tirement. Some eighteen months before its 
appearance I happened to be on a visit to him. 
It was at the time when I was making preparations 
for my editing of the Church of Scotland weekly 
journal, Saint Andrew. He took a deep interest 
in the venture, and as I was leaving he asked to 
be excused for a moment, and on returning he had 



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in his hand a brown paper parcel, carefully bound 
up, and with evident delight he handed it to me 
and said, " There's my Christmas present for Saint 
Andrew." On opening the parcel I discovered 
that it contained twenty meditations. When they 
had appeared he sent me fresh instalments. When 
they too had run their course in the magazine, 
the series was published in volume form, with a 
brief " Biographical Sketch of the Author," written 
by me at the request of the publishers. These 
valued contributions were a free gift from him 
and a mark of his friendship, and he continued 
to write regularly for the journal until his death, 
and on the same terms. Indeed, the last book 
published by him, Rests by the River, first saw 
the light in Saint Andrew, a fact which he is care- 
ful to note in the very first line of his Preface. 
It was also a book of devotional meditations, and 
was published in the spring of 1906. The Sceptre 
without a Sword is a charming booklet, based on 
the vision of Daniel, " I saw in the night visions, 
and, behold, one like the Son of Man came with the 
clouds of heaven. . . . And there was given Him a 
kingdom" (vii. 13). Dr. Matheson interprets the 
vision of the old Hebrew seer in the light of the 
history of the world since the coming of Christ. 
He argues that the secret of the difference between 
ancient and modern times is the influence of 
Christmas Day ; in other words, the fact that the 
hearts of modern men have been dominated by a 
Man of sacrifice — simple motives setting in move- 



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ment great forces, the wheels of time quickened by 
the heart finding impulse and inspiration in the 
sublime events associated with Christmas-time. In 
this helping of man by man he finds the hope that 
differences which now separate men will be 
hushed, and the notes of a common Hymnal 
drawing all together in that meridian hour of 
Christmas Day when the last vestige of difference 
shall be removed. 

His contributions to periodical literature during 
this period were not numerous. It is true that in 
1 90 1 he wrote a series of eleven articles to The 
Expositor on " Scientific Lights on Religious 
Problems." He now regarded the old war between 
science and religion as at an end, and he himself 
was an important factor in bringing the strife to so 
happy and fruitful an issue. He now calls in Science 
as the handmaid of Religion, and in these articles he 
shows how the great doctrines of the Christian 
Faith can be interpreted by it. In the previous 
year, 1900, he wrote an article to The London 
Quarterly Review on the " Characteristics of Bible 
Portraiture." It was a preparation for his next 
important book. In this article he promulgates 
the views which he afterwards embodied in his 
Portrait of Christ and The Representative Men of 
the Bible, 

It was in the autumn of 1902 that the first of 
his striking books on Bible characters appeared. 
He published it under the above title, The Repre- 
sentative Men of the Bible. " By this," he says, 



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" I mean the men of the Bible who represent 
phases of the Bible, irrespective of place and time, 
and I consider them only in those incidents in 
which they are representative. These studies," he 
continues, "are not historical, they are not 
critical. They are an analysis of the portraits as 
we see them, without any attempt to inquire how 
or when they came." He follows the method 
which, for a brief study of any human character, is 
always the most illuminating ; he adopts a point of 
view. He looks, so to speak, at the individual 
whom he intends to sketch ; focuses the incidents 
of his life and the features of his character, and 
allows himself to be impressed by the idea which is 
then produced. This he regards as the soul of 
the man, the mental or spiritual fact represented 
by him ; and it is what he pictures. No one was 
more capable of excelling in a work of this kind 
than Dr. Matheson. His point of view may to 
the prosaic mind seem at times a little far-fetched. 
As occasionally happens, when this method is 
adopted, violence may be done to certain features 
which do not harmonise with the image that the 
artist has in his mind. But taken as a whole it is 
a suggestive method, one which lifts its subject 
out of the crowd of details which obscure the 
character in place of revealing it. Matheson 
pondered each " Representative Man " in turn. 
He allowed the subject for the time being to 
possess him ; he brought his own creative genius 
to work upon it, and the result is a portrait gallery 



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of Bible characters which has few equals in 
Christian literature. The three volumes which 
he published, two on the Old Testament and one 
on the New, are as certain to live as anything he 
ever wrote. The first volume was received by 
public and press with much enthusiasm. In a 
short time it reached a fourth edition. These 
volumes, along with his Studies of the Portrait of 
Christ and his Meditations, have had the largest 
sale of all his works, and give every hope of con- 
tinuing to attract readers for many a day. One 
feature common to them all is the devotional note 
with which each chapter ends ; and the following 
interesting letter from a missionary of the Pres- 
byterian Church in Japan bears striking testimony 
to Matheson's far-reaching influence : — 

Matsuyama, Japan, 
May 12, 1906. 

Dear Dr. Matheson, — My wife and I were of some 
help to a Japanese military doctor who was very sick 
during the late war with Russia, and upon his recovery to 
health he asked me many things about Christianity, and 
especially about prayer. I am teaching English in a 
Government school here in Matsuyama, and asked one of 
the English-speaking Japanese teachers to translate into 
Japanese the prayer which follows on your study of 
David in Representative Men of the Bible. This doctor 
said that the prayer is comprehensive, and he used it every 
day. While not yet baptized, I think the Lord has been 
guiding him by this sickness to the truth. I thought per- 
haps you might be interested to know that your prayer 
has had an influence even in Japan, and thus the scope of 
your work has been enlarged more than you might think. 
I thank the Lord that He has qualified you for being such 
a help and comfort, to many like myself, through your 



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printed works. I have had such pleasure in reading- your 
books, and in feeling through them the warmth of your 
spiritual nature. I hope you will still have many years of 
being the teacher of God's comfort to others, even as He 
has taught you of His comfort. — Yours very sincerely, 

A. V. Bryan. 

To this Dr. Matheson replied : 

14 Belgrave Crescent, 
June 13, 1906. 

Please accept my very best thanks for your very 
kind communication ! It is my greatest joy in life to 
learn that my poor effort affords help and comfort to my 
fellow-man. It is truly good of you to send me such a 
high appreciation of my work. But specially am I rejoiced 
to know that my words have influence outside the Church 
of Christ ; this is indeed a thing of which one may be justly 
proud. But, for that matter, I have the greatest admira- 
tion for the Japanese nation ; and I firmly believe that, in 
the main, they live the Christian life. I cannot but think 
that that life will yet shape itself in the form of a creed 
which will inspire them with the hope everlasting, and 
stimulate the duties of earth by the light of heaven. — 
Yours very sincerely, etc. 

Hearers of Dr. Matheson's sermons were well 
aware of the variety of his intellectual and literary 
interests. He appeared in the pulpit with a Divine 
message, but one that was lit up and illustrated by 
the fruits of his multifarious reading. His books, 
treating for the most part of theological and 
religious subjects, fail to give the same impression 
of his wide culture. In truth, however, he was quite 
as much interested in secular literature as in sacred, 
and his knowledge of the one was almost as exten- 
sive as his knowledge of the other. It was a 
surprise to many when, in the spring of 1905, an 



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article by him appeared in the Glasgow Evening 
News on the " Modern English Novel," showing 
an acquaintance with the popular authors of the 
day quite as extensive as and much more informing 
than that of the professional novel reader ; and the 
surprise of others was almost as great when in 
the previous year, at the annual dinner of the 
Edinburgh Ninety Burns Club, he delivered his 
remarkable oration on the poet. Dr. Mathe- 
son's friends were well aware of his admiration 
for the national bard. His enthusiasm broke out 
now and again in the pulpit, and in one instance 
he made a happy use of a famous passage in the 
life of Christ to illustrate and in a sense to justify 
the poet's character. In his Portrait of Christ, 
remarking on an incident which he says has trans- 
fixed the attention of the world, the contrasted 
attitude of the Pharisees and of Christ in the 
presence of an unfortunate woman, there is the 
following striking passage :— 

This particular kind of sin was precisely the one from 
which a Pharisee was apt to be free. There are cases in 
which Satan casts out Satan ; there are men and women 
who are exempt from certain vices simply through the 
presence of other vices. A cold, phlegmatic nature would 
never commit the sins of Robert Burns. This does not 
justify Robert Burns ; but it shows that one disease may 
be cured by another disease. It is a matter of daily 
experience that the advent of a new ailment may cause 
an already existing ailment to subside ; there are forms of 
physical illness which cannot live together. There are 
forms of moral illness which are also mutually antagonistic. 
I cannot imagine that the typical Judas Iscariot could 
ever have been guilty of that form of sin which char- 



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acterised this woman. The man who could carefully 
count out thirty pieces of silver as the price of his Lord's 
betrayal would never have committed the miscalculations 
of her who squandered life, reputation, respectability, on 
the sensuous passion of an hour. 

So much for Dr. Matheson's conception of the 
character of Burns ; it reveals at once his insight 
and his charity. In his Edinburgh address it is the 
poetry of Burns that forms his subject, and the two 
notes which, to his thinking, distinguish it are its 
sympathy and universality. He aptly illustrates 
the former by a reference to Burns's poem on the 
Daisy. "Did it ever occur to you to ask," he 
exclaims, "why he speaks of the flower as 'crimson 
tipped ' ? — 

Is it not the fact? you say. Of course: but I doubt 
very much if that is why Burns said it. Burns is not the 
maker of an almanac. He never records facts just because 
they are facts, he has always a reason beyond. And if I 
am not greatly mistaken he had a reason here. He has 
been calling the daisy " modest." What is the expression 
of modesty ? Is it not blushing — blushing crimson. 
Could any two epithets come together more beautifully, 
more harmoniously? Crashaw once wrote a poem on 
the Miracle of Cana of Galilee; he wrote it in one line 
— "The Conscious Water knew its Lord, and blushed." 
Burns, I think, had the same thought about the daisy. It 
grew upon the mountain-top and saw the glory. And 
it blushed before the glory. It felt its own inherent 
nothingness and the crimson dyed its face. 

In referring to the second note of Burns's poetry, 
its universality, Dr. Matheson remarks : 

This man is an instrument of ten strings — of all 
possible strings. He wears the garb of Scotland but he 



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is the poet of Humanity. His accent is provincial but his 
speech is cosmopolitan. He sings in a national dialect, 
but he delivers a message to man. The hands are the 
hands of Esau, but the voice is the voice of Jacob. We 
claim him as the property of our separate land, but in 
truth he has made our land universal. This man, in a 
literary sense, has soared above principalities and powers. 
He is neither Jew nor Greek, barbarian nor Roman, bond 
nor free. He is neither Scotch nor English ; he is neither 
French nor Italian ; he is neither Dutch nor German : he 
is neither, and yet he is all these — he is human. It is on 
this we base his claim to immortality. Nationalities will 
die. Even though the foot of an enemy should touch 
them not, time changes their countenance and disrobes 
them of their vesture. The nationality of Scotland itself 
has faded in the ever-increasing assimilation to her 
wealthier sister. But Burns has not faded. He stands 
on the mountain-top in full vision of that Canaan where 
the immortals dwell, and his eye is not dim nor his natural 
strength abated. 

The great annual break in Dr. Matheson's life, 
when he was minister of St. Bernard's, was his 
summer holiday. He took two full months, August 
and September, and during them he would preach 
for no one. For the first fifteen years of his life 
in Edinburgh he spent his summer vacation on the 
west coast, chiefly at Craigmore, Skelmorlie, or 
Largs. He did a certain amount of work each day, 
and enjoyed being read to as usual, but he took 
frequent sails on the river steamers and long 
drives into the country. Latterly, however, he 
preferred to go to the east coast, and for several 
summers in succession he spent his holiday at 
North Berwick. The quiet of the place, its 
bracing sea-breezes, its variety of carriage drives, 



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and its congenial society, all appealed to him. It 
was there that he made the friendship of Dr. Hately 
Waddell, and the two had frequent intercourse 
together. Dr. Waddell, who had a great admira- 
tion for his friend, has communicated to me certain 
impressions which are particularly accurate and 
interesting. He remarks, for example : 

Dr. Matheson was in the habit of saying, in his 
paradoxical way, that blindness was not the want of sight 
but in reality too much sight. He was blind, he would 
say, not because he saw too little but because he saw too 
much. Blindness was excessive light, and the time of 
revelation for him was in the night ; then he saw clearly. 
He was fond of expressing himself in paradoxes, and it 
was difficult sometimes to know how far he was in earnest 
in statements of this kind. But certainly no other form of 
words could so well have described his temperament 
either as a writer or a preacher. All his work, written or 
spoken, was a transcription of what he mentally saw. 
Truth came to him as a vision ; he did not reason it out. 
He had a vivid picture of it complete at once, and its 
certainty was more or less tested by the vividness of the 
form it assumed in his mind. 

What chiefly struck Dr. Waddell was Matheson's 
impressionist temperament, which, he says, 

gave such force to his preaching and such vividness to 
his writing. His power lay in holding up to others the 
same living impression of a subject which he himself had 
experienced. His preaching was not so much the 
elucidation of a text or of a theme as the re-telling of 
a series of graphic impressions which the subject had 
already made on the preacher, each of which seemed to 
absorb for the time the whole truth of life. Hence also 
his writings, even his earlier works, assumed chiefly a 
descriptive rather than an argumentative form, and 



LAST YEARS 



351 



finally became by preference a series of portraits or picture 
studies. 

But while his genius was thus poetical, pictorial, 
and imaginative, and while he proclaimed himself 
to be an idealist, 

he never allowed either poetry or imagination to run 
away with him. His work was all of an exact and 
practical kind. Whether for pulpit or press his ideal 
conceptions were reduced to the actual necessities of the 
occasion. The most poetical themes and exalted views of 
life and history became real and persuasive to those who 
listened or read. No great man is vague in his thinking, 
and Dr. Matheson shared this characteristic of true 
greatness: that he worked out all his thought to its 
legitimate conclusions and left a large and complete 
picture of it on the imagination and memory. The truths 
of religion and history he regarded as universal, and the 
differences of time, or thought, or nationality, merely 
incidental. He would have held himself as defrauded of 
an inalienable right had he been forbidden to translate the 
teaching of the Bible into all the varied conditions and 
vernacular of to-day. His chief mission, he latterly 
thought, was just this form of translation of Bible truths 
into modern conditions. Not necessarily the illumination 
of antique formulas but, certainly, the reconstruction of 
them by modern ideas. 

Dr. Waddell is in doubt as to'whether he was 
more theological or devout in his nature, whether 
he was more reasoning or emotional in his habit of 
thought. He thinks both tendencies were fairly 
well balanced, and that in his writings there is a 
unique combination of both. " It is true," he adds, 

that his more reasoned themes had a great influence on 
current opinion, especially perhaps The Old Faith and 
the New, which Tennyson is said to have recommended 



352 



LAST YEARS 



to the late Duke of Argyll, and which Sir Andrew Clark 
recommended to many friends as the best antidote to 
atheism. But the most of these works were the outcome 
of his historical and theological reading, and are not so 
peculiar to his genius as his more individual meditations 
on devotional subjects. I should say that naturally his 
temperament was more that of the preacher than of the 
author, and that subjects which were treated from the 
standpoint of the preacher were both more congenial to 
himself and more helpful to his readers. 

Referring to his most abiding mood, during his 
later years, he says : 

The truth of Christianity, which chiefly appealed to 
him, was not any dogmatic definition of its special 
purposes and aims, but the broader revelation it contained 
of the immanence of the Divine in the human,) of the 
eternal in the temporal, of the spiritual in the natural. 
Nothing indeed appealed to him more than this Christian 
consecration of the natural and commonplace, of the 
apparently common and unclean. This was the Gospel 
of his later years : the immanence of the Divine in the 
human, in all life and in all conditions of life. This, too, 
was the ever-recurring theme of his conversation, it was 
not so much a philosophy as simply a spiritual conviction, 
learned direct from Christ. 

Wherein, asks Dr. Waddell, lay Matheson's 
chief value to the Church of his generation ? Putting 
aside his literary work, he would find the answer in 
his fresh, spontaneous, unconventional personality. 

He was a living rebuke to all formality, to all minis- 
terial mannerisms, to all outworn proprieties. He had 
a unique character, and it ruled all his clerical functions. 
Like his conversation, these were absolutely unconven- 
tional. His sermons and his prayers were things by 
themselves ; they were sometimes startling, but always 
fresh and forceful. He chose his own methods, but he 



LAST YEARS 



353 



had strength to make them successful. He broke away 
from clerical customs, but he did not need their support. 
And in days of advancing ritual he thought the Church 
might perhaps stake too much upon forms and proprieties. 
Much will be accepted from one who lets his own religious 
individuality have its full swing. This was the advice he 
gave as to ministerial training. He had great faith in 
human nature when consecrated to an ideal, and had no 
patience with anything artificial or unreal. 

Speaking of a well-known trait in Dr. Mathe- 
son's character, his frank outspokenness and free 
criticisms of men and things, he remarks : 

A strong humanity ruled all his social views, though at 
times his criticisms of individuals were severe. That, how- 
ever, was but one side of his criticism, for the next moment 
he would find something in the same character worthy of 
the highest praise ; indeed, he passed from blame to praise 
without delay and without grudge. It was his nature to 
be constantly in extremes, and no one would have dreamed, 
least of all he himself, of taking these sudden valuations 
of character as prearranged judgments. His whole con- 
versation was ecstatic and unpremeditated, and rose and 
fell with quick succession of varied feelings. It never was 
commonplace. 

He had the same rapid and careless way of flashing 
out quotations on what might seem dangerous occasions. 
For when the application appealed to him he could not 
restrain a good-natured criticism or comparison, however 
pungent. But, as one said who knew him well, " These 
things all came and went in a moment." He took for 
granted always a hearer of judgment and tact, who could 
sympathise with and understand the sudden transitions 
of a quick-moving mind. A Homeric simplicity ruled 
all his character. The most sacred and profane equally 
appealed to him. The unity of God's great world gave 
worth and meaning to everything, even to things 
which religious society, with its conventional judgments, 
abandoned or condemned. 

23 



354 



LAST YEARS 



It was when on holiday at North Berwick, in 
the autumn of last year, that he took suddenly 
ill and died. I had seen him in Edinburgh at 
the beginning of June, and I was very much dis- 
tressed at the change which was perceptible in 
his appearance. . It is true that he was just re- 
covering then from a serious attack of influenza, 
but it seemed to me that the hand of Death was 
upon him. I understand he recovered with sur- 
prising rapidity, and it looked as if he had many 
years still before him. The one object of interest 
to him, in those last days, was the beautiful new 
house which he had bought at 14 Belgrave 
Crescent. The last letter I ever received from 
him was one from North Berwick, assuring me of 
the welcome which he would give me in his new 
abode on his return home. Mr. William Smith, his 
secretary, has kindly furnished me with the follow- 
ing details regarding Dr. Matheson's health during 
the closing years of his life : — 

" First, I did indeed notice that some two or 
three years before his death he was not in a 
physical sense the George Matheson I had met 
some seven or eight years before. He first, I 
fancy, realised his failing health on the occasion of 
a trip to Leeds, where he preached a great sermon 
to the Wesleyan Methodists. From that time he 
became increasingly averse to travel, and he de- 
clined, right and left, invitations which involved 
travel ; and before long he declined invitations to 
preach, whether they involved travel or not. It 



LAST YEARS 



355 



was not that he feared the preaching itself ; he 
merely objected to being any length of time from 
his own house. The last occasion on which he 
preached was in Morningside Church, Edinburgh, on 
the 14th of February 1904. That sermon, I admit, 
appeared to call from him a great physical effort. I 
remember, when disrobing him in the vestry after- 
wards, he was positively wet with perspiration. 
What I mean is, that he evidently anticipated this 
effort, judged by what I recollect was an unusual 
amount of anxiety, for him, for some time before 
the event was due. I do not remember his text, I 
only remember that Morningside Church was filled 
that day, and that I was rather concerned about 
his physical condition. I remember, too, having 
an inkling myself that he could not preach again. 
Whether he had such an inkling I do not know ; 
I should say not ; and, for that matter, he was 
destined to make another public appearance, on the 
occasion, in November of 1904, of one of the 
annual services of the Life Boat Saturday Fund 
Service. He delivered a very fine prayer on the 
Sunday evening at the Empire Theatre. Even 
that occasion caused him a great effort, especially 
as he had committed the prayer to memory — a 
practice he was latterly much averse to. And yet 
I do not think that up to this Empire appearance, 
nor indeed till much later, if even then, he himself 
realised that his bodily health was giving way. His 
naturally optimistic disposition could not permit 
him any despondency. 



356 



LAST YEARS 



<4 He manifested during the last years of his life 
symptoms of that trouble which in the end proved 
fatal, and his increasing shortness of breath made 
him more and more reluctant to take bodily 
exercise. But he was told that driving exercise 
was the thing for him, and, latterly, he often took 
this driving exercise when he would much rather 
have stayed at home. The very work of getting 
in and out of his carriage became more and more 
difficult. Realising this myself, I latterly volun- 
teered to personally assist him when he returned 
from his two hours' drive. * Ah ! ' he said one 
day, when I had assisted him from his carriage 
to his study, * this is very good of you. I am a 
poor creature, and I don't think you will have me 
long.' This happened, I should think, about three 
weeks before his death. But that mood did not pre- 
vail till the end. During our working hours together 
he seemed as cheery and vivacious as ever. Those 
pleasantries to which he was accustomed were 
always in evidence, and his laugh was something in 
his old style. But if any instance struck me 
afterwards, as having been of a premonitory nature, 
it was the fact which occurred only some four hours 
before his apoplectic seizure. After an hour's read 
— from 8 to 9 p.m. on August 27th — which was 
commenced upon the Napoleonic vol. (vol. iii. or iv., 
I forget which) of the Cambridge Modern History, 
and finished upon the lighter diet of one of W. E. 
Norris' novels, I was considerably 'staggered' 
by, 4 You might give me that Braille, William ; I 



LAST YEARS 



357 



think I'll do a little work.' I should not have 
been ' staggered ' by such a request three or four 
years earlier ; but not for a very long time had he 
been in the habit of ' writing up ' anything so late 
in the day. I took it upon me to remonstrate with 
him — gently but firmly. ' But I must get on with 
my book ! ' [Representative Women of the Bible ; 
published after his death] he argued. ' An old adage 
tells us not to "put off till to-morrow what we can 
do to-day " ' — a saying rather suggestive, I think. 
At all events Dr. Matheson could not have finished 
his book that day, and it is perhaps just as well 
that I prevailed on him not to attempt it. 

" Personally, I have not much faith in pre- 
monitions ; but that looked remarkably like some- 
thing of the sort. But allowing that these some- 
what gloomy forebodings really found root in him, 
his skies were of a singularly alternating nature. 
He assuredly never thought the end was so near. 
I am sure that, not more than a day or two before 
his death, he was making plans regarding his new 
house — how he would entertain during the then 
coming winter. Then, during his drive on August 
27th, lasting about two and a half hours, I under- 
stood that he was in exceptionally good spirits. 
So the premonition did not altogether weigh him 
down. It is some years ago now, but he once 
told me — in a not altogether jocular way — that he 
thought he should ' never die ' ! The fact is, his 
abnormally active intellect could not conceive that 
intellect in a state of passivity." 



358 



LAST YEARS 



His sister, Miss Matheson, speaking of the last 
visit to North Berwick, remembers her brother 
saying to her then, as he had often said before, " I 
have had a happy life." " He also told me he thought 
he had a new note in his voice, which made me 
think he was strong ; and I did think he was seeing 
better. One day he asked the doctor if there was 
anything organically wrong, as he felt not so well. 
The doctor said, quite decidedly, ' No.' My brother 
replied, ' I would like to live to do a little good.' 
Surely God had more important work for him to 
do." (< He was very happy," she continues, "at 
North Berwick, and full of bright plans for the 
future. He enjoyed driving with my sister Nellie 
and me on the 27 th, and was busily engaged in 
writing his last work that day. He retired to rest 
at 11.15, an d bade me his usual affectionate good- 
night. At 1.30 in the morning I heard a slight 
moan. My sister Nellie and I rushed downstairs, 
and found he could not speak. He was quite 
conscious, however, and smiled with a restful, satis- 
fied look to us both, showing that he knew us 
well and was glad we were near. I was told 
not to go to his room, as the doctor wished him 
kept very quiet. He thought he would recover, 
as he had a fine constitution. I did go once, how- 
ever, and when he heard my voice his face lit up 
with a lovely, beaming expression, full of joy and 
peace. I shall never forget it, and I feel that no 
photograph could ever depict that radiant glow. 
He passed most peacefully away ; there was no 



LAST YEARS 



359 



suffering. As the doctor said, ' He had an abundant 
entrance.' " 

The news of Dr. Matheson's death came as a 
shock of surprise, and produced a profound feeling 
of regret. It was so sudden and so unexpected, 
and, so far as age is concerned, he had not long 
passed the meridian of life. It was known that he 
was more disinclined than ever to preach, but this 
was not put down to any special physical weakness ; 
and a fresh volume by him having appeared, so 
recently as the spring, gave everyone the hope 
that he would be spared for many years to instruct 
and to comfort the Church of Christ. Long and 
appreciative notices of him appeared in almost every 
newspaper in England and in Scotland, indeed 
throughout the British Empire and America. 
Special references were made to him from almost 
every pulpit in his native land on the Sunday after 
his death ; and, by a unanimous desire, his famous 
hymn was sung on the same day by most congrega- 
tions. The two leading Presbyteries of the Church, 
those of Edinburgh and Glasgow, and the Royal 
Society of Edinburgh, minuted special resolutions 
of regret and sympathy, copies of which were sent 
to his family. But more significant than any of 
these, and a stronger testimony to his work and to 
his influence, were the letters that his sister received 
from admirers in different parts of the world, and 
in particular from those, like himself, who suffered 
from dire physical calamity, and whose life his 
example had inspired and whose suffering his faith 



360 



LAST YEARS 



had mitigated. Indeed, under Providence, his 
special gift to the world may, in the end, prove to 
be, the encouragement which his noble life will give 
to those who, like himself, may be subjected to a 
life-long physical affliction. Let me give two such 
letters. 

Surrey, 
September 2, 1906. 

Dear Madam, — Will you pardon me, a stranger to 
you, if I seem irreverently to intrude in your unspeakable 
sorrow. 

I only desire to convey to you a humble and an affec- 
tionate acknowledgment of the endless debt I owe to the 
late Dr. Matheson, whom having not seen I love. 

He who writes to you is a young clergyman of the 
Church of England, and a Scotsman. My eyes have been 
permanently injured by illness for many years now, — but 
after long darkness they partially recovered. 

So your dear brother has been to me, by his heroic life, 
a constant example in my ministry, and in times of 
difficulty I have gone to his books for light and inspira- 
tion. 

I had for some time wished to write to him, but 
hesitated to intrude. 

May I now, and especially under the circumstances I 
have named, be forgiven for sending these simple words 
of deep gratitude to you ? 

If so, I hope this letter will reach you. — Yours most 
sincerely, M. A. 

Dear Miss Matheson, — It was with feelings akin 
to shock that I learned of the sudden death of your 
beloved brother, and I desire on behalf of my wife and 
myself to offer to you and all the mourning relatives our 
sincerest sympathy. May you realise, in a very special 
degree, the comforting presence and consoling companion- 
ship of Christ in your great sorrow. 

I cannot tell you how much your highly gifted 



LAST YEARS 



361 



brother was to me. Like him, I too lost my sight very 
early in life, but through his magnificent example I was 
induced to enter the ministry, in which I have been 
labouring for these eleven years. It is somewhere about 
seventeen years ago since one of my fellow-students 
introduced me to Dr. Matheson, and well do I remember 
our first meeting. I have met him more than once since 
then, and I have corresponded with him frequently. He 
was always kind and gracious, and supremely hopeful and 
inspiring. It may interest you to learn that my wife had 
just finished "The Glory of the Morning" in Moments on 
the Mounts when her eye caught the sad announcement 
of his death in the newspaper. The eternal youth of 
which he writes so beautifully in this meditation is now 
for him not an inspiring vision but a glorious reality. 

He died at Avenell House, North Berwick, on 
Tuesday, 28th August 1906, and he was buried in 
the family vault in Glasgow Necropolis on the fol- 
lowing Saturday, September 1st. His remains 
had been previously brought to his new house at 
Belgrave Crescent, which, alas ! was only to know its 
owner in death. There service was conducted in 
the presence of the family and of those specially 
invited to the funeral. On reaching Glasgow a 
large concourse was found waiting the arrival of 
the cortege. 

How the sun did shine on his funeral day ! Its 
rays poured with a steady brilliance, that made men 
wonder. It was not a day on which one could be 
sad — it was a day of light and creator of gladsome- 
ness. Many may have thought of this as they 
crossed the Dean Bridge, or walked along one or 
other of the terraces, on their way to the funeral. 
Joy, not sorrow, the very heavens seemed to de- 



362 



LAST YEARS 



clare, ought to be the prevailing note in the service 
and the feeling in the heart. For the day had a 
message. It flashed the thought, that to him who 
had been surrounded with outward darkness all was 
now bright; that to the miracle of the New Birth 
which gives sight to the eye of faith had been 
added the miracle of the New State in which we 
" shall see Him as He is." Nor did the sun lose 
one ray of its lustre all that day. It followed the 
cortege with its glad message of hope to Matheson's 
own city, the city in which he was born and bred, 
and round which clustered many of his fondest 
recollections. Glasgow was proud of him while he 
was in life, and it will ever cherish his memory in 
death. Many of its leading clergy and citizens met 
and accompanied the bier to its last resting-place 
in the noble Necropolis. The ancient Cathedral, 
with a look of perpetual youth on its venerable 
walls, spoke as they passed of the " glorious 
resurrection." Around the open grave the mourners 
stood in sad dejection ; and when all was over, and 
the last words of farewell and hope were spoken, 
they still stood as if expecting something more — 
they knew not what. That " something more " 
will be revealed to them, also, when " Death is 
swallowed up in victory." 



INDEX 



Abbotsford Place, 39, Glasgow, 2, 
8, 15. 

Abbott, Dr. Lyman, 270. 

Academy, Glasgow, 15. 

Addresses — at Edinburgh Ninety 
Burns Club, 8 ; at Presbyterian 
Council, Belfast, 206, 209 ; at 
St. Bernard's, Edinburgh, 255 ; 
to Theological Students, 334. 

Agnosticism, articles on, 205. 

Aids to the Study of German 
Theology, 133, 135, 138, 147, 
202. 

Alison, Rev. Dr. John, 139. 
Apologetics, 152, 154. 
Apostle Paul, the, 268, 269. 
Appointment to Innellan, 87. 
Argyll, Duke of, 214. 
Assistants, Dr. Matheson's, 326. 
Augustine, 171. 

Autobiography of " Jupiter " 

Carlyle, 26. 
Avenell J House, North Berwick, 

361. 

Baird Lecture, 162. 
Balmoral, 215. 
Bar, the, 23. 

Barnett, Rev. T. R., 235. 
Basis of Religious Belief, 160. 
Baur, 154. 



Belfast, meeting of Pan- 
Presbyterian Council at, 206. 
Belgrave Crescent, 288, 354. 
Bell, Mr. M'Kenzie, 310. 
Bell, Mr., Glasgow Academy, 17. 
Bible Class at St. Bernard's, 255. 
Bible Definition of Religion, 285. 
Biblical World, 263. 
Blackie, Professor, 4. 
Blackwood & Sons, 211, 281. 
Blair, Rev. Dr., 47. 
Bleek, 134. 

"Blind Girl's Retrospect, The," 
64. 

Boyd, A. K. H., 26, 27. 
Braille system, the, 293, 294. 
British and Foreign Evangelical 

Review, 164. 
British Quarterly Magazine, 150. 
British Weekly, 164, 317. 
Brooke, Stopford, 111. 
Brown, Rev. Mr., 26. 
Brown, Wm., Session Clerk, 

Sandyford, 91. 
Bruce, Professor, 164, 333. 
Bryan, Mr. A. V., letter from, 

364. 

Buchanan, Professor Robert, 33, 
34, 44- 

Buchanan, Robert, 18, 35. 
Buchanan's School, Glasgow, 14. 



364 



INDEX 



Burns Club, Edinburgh Ninety, 
347- 

Bust presented by Queen Victoria, 

217 
Butler, 153. 
Byron, 17, 53, 64. 

Caesar, Rev. Dr., 261. 
Caird, Edward, 35, 46, 308. 
Caird, Principal, 44, 45, 46, 48, 

74, 76, 100, 101, 120, 315. 
Calderwood, Professor, 207. 
Call to London, 148. 
Cameron, Rev. Dr., of Dunoon, 

122. 

Cameron, John, 35. 

Campbell, Miss Mally, 26. 

Campbell, Principal, 26. 

Can the Old Faith Live with the 

New, 205, 210, 214. 
Carlile, Mr. James, 17. 
Carlton Place School, 14. 
Carlyle, " Jupiter," 26. 
Carlyle, Thomas, 46, 229. 
Carmichael, Gershom, 35. 
Carnegie, Mr., 30. 
Carruthers, Rev. Thomas, 33, 

37- 

Cassell & Co., 167, 281. 
Catholic Presbyterian, The, 1 50. 
Catholicity of spirit, 2, 129, 148, 

174, 186. 
Chalmers, Thomas, 229, 316. 
Charteris, Professor, 74, 138, 147. 
Christian World, 263. 
Christianity, 140, 147, 148. 
Church, Dean, 170. 
Church elections, 89, 90. 
Clark, Sir Andrew, 352. 
Clark's "Biblical Cabinet," 133. 
Clifton Literary Society, 53. 
Clyde, Firth of, 92. 



Coleridge, 46. 
Confucianism, 279. 
Contemporaries at College, 47. 
Contemporary Review ', 143, 145. 
Corelli, Marie, 9. 
Cowan, Professor, Aberdeen, 337. 
Cox, Samuel, 145. 
Craigmore, 349. 
Crathie Parish Church, 215. 
Criticism, Higher, 309. 
Crown Court Church, London, 
148. 

Cumming, Rev. Dr., 148. 
Cunningham, Rev. James, 66. 
Currie, Mr., Glasgow Academy, 
17. 

Currie, Dr., 224. 

Cyril Thornton, by Captain 
Hamilton, 27, 43. 

Darwin, 203, 204, 212. 
D.D. degree, 146. 
De Wette, 134. 
Deism, English, 153. 
Delitzsch, 134. 

Devotion based on conviction, 

172, 173. 
Devotional Works, 167, 168. 
Dickson, Professor, 44. 
Disruption, the, 1. 
Distinctive Messages of the Old 

Religions, 279. 
Donald, Rev. Dr., of Keithhall, 

95- 

Dorner, 134. 
Dornoch, 3. 

Drummond, Prof. Henry, 211, 
310. 

Drummond, Rev. J. J., B.D., 247, 
321. 

Dublin, Archbishop of, 22. 
Dykes, Dr. 190. 



INDEX 



365 



Ecce Ho?no, 332. 

Edgar, James, 26. 

Edinburgh University, 146. 4/ 

English Literature Chair at 

Glasgow University, 34. 
Errol, 315. 

Essays, College, 36, 37, 38, 39. 
Evolution, 205, 206, 211, 309. 
Ewald, 134. 
Examiner, The, 167. 
Expositor, The, 145, 149, 268, 

285, 343- 
Expository addresses, 104. 
Expository Times, 263. 
Extempore preaching, 116. 
Extract from first sermon at 

Sandyford, 82. 

Farewell addresses — to Innellan, 
227 ; St. Bernard's, 325. 

Father of Dr. Matheson, 2. 

Ferguson, Rev. Martin Peter, 
94. 

Fichte, 135. 
Finlay, Mr., 14. 

Fleming, Professor William, 44. 
Flint, Professor, 162, 213. 
Francis de Sales, 171. 
Fraser, Rev. James, 60. 

German Theology, 133, 136, 

138. 
Giesler, 134. 

Gifford Lectureship, 337. 
Glasgow University, 24, 27, 35. 
Glassford Street, 5, 6. 
Gloag, Rev. Dr., 7, 125, 139, 
Good Words, 263. 
Gordon, Rev. Dr. D. M., 47, 60. 
Gordon, Rev. James, 38. 
Gordon, Sir Robert, 3. 
Gow, Mr., 17. 



Graduation in Arts, 44. 
Grant, Rev. Dr. C. M., 60. 
Growth of the Spirit of Christi- 
anity, 140, 147, 148, 202. 
Guthrie, Dr., 111. 

Hamilton, Captain, 27. 

Hamilton, Sir William, 27, 133. 

Hastie, Professor, 136. 

Hausrath, 134. 

Hay, Dr. G. P., 208. 

Hay, Professor Matthew, 336. 

Hegel, Influence of, 45, 46, 123, 

135, 140, 308. 
Hengstenberg, 134. 
Herbert, George, 171. 
Highland ancestry, 3. 
Hill, Professor, 44. 
Hill, Principal, 44. 
Historical Christ of St. Paul, 

12. 

History of German Theology, 
136. 

Histrionic faculty, 55. 
Hodder & Stoughton, 281. 
Hodge, Dr., 206. 
Home life, 19. 

Homiletic Magazine, 263, 264. 
Home, Rev. Robert, 94. 
Hotson, Mr. James, 16, 53. 
Hutcheson, Miss, 14. 
Hutcheson, Professor, 26, 35. 
Huxley, 204. 

Hymn, Matheson's, 181, 188, 191, 

192, 194. 
Hymns, criticism of, 185. 

Immortality, 157, 160. 
Individualism, 142. 
Induction to St. Bernard's, Edin- 
burgh, 208. 



366 



INDEX 



Inglis, Lord, 53, 147. 
Innellan, 56, 87, 220. 
Introduction at Innellan, 100. 

Jackson, Professor, 44. 
Jamieson, Dr., Glasgow, 138. 
Jardine, Professor, 33. 
Job, Book of, 14. 
Job, sermon on the patience of, 
217. 

Johnston, Dr. Wm., of Belfast, 207. 

Kant, 134, 135, 153. 
Keble, 171. 
Keil, 134. 
Keim, 134. 
Kelvin, Lord, 204. 
Kelvinhaugh, 85. 
Kent Road, 17. 
Knox, John, 229. 

Labrador House, Innellan, 287. 
Lady Ecclesia, The, 281, 283. 
Lady Yester's Church, Edinburgh, 
315. 

Landmarks of New Testament 

Morality, 266. 
Lang, Rev. Marshall B., B.D., 

244, 258. 
Laokoon of Lessing, 204. 
Largs, 349. 

Leaves for Quiet Hours, 168, 172. 
Lee, Professor, Glasgow, 206. 
Leechman, Professor, 26. 
Leeds, sermon in Brunswick 

Chapel, 339. 
Leigh, H. S., 115. 
Leishman, Rev. Dr., Govan, 94. 
Leisure Hours in Town, A. K. 

H. Boyd, 27. 
Lessing, Life of, by Mr. James 

Sime, 137. 



Letters of gratitude, 179, 191, 192, 
194. 

Lichtenberger, 125. 

Liddon, Canon, 209. 

Life and Work, 188. 

Lifeboat Saturday Fund Service, 

355- 
Lisco, 134. 
Lister, 204. 
Lockhart, 26. 
" Logic Bob," 33. 
London Quarterly Review, 343. 
Lytton, Bulwer, 33. 

M'Burney, Dr., 17. 
M'Culloch, Rev. Dr., 91. 
Macdonald, Rev. Finlay, 60. 
Macduff, Dr., of Sandyford, 56, 
74- 

Macduff, Miss, 77, 80. 
M'Farlane, Rev. Mr., 261. 
MacGregor, Rev. Dr., 214. 
Mackenzie, Dr., 9. 
Macleod, Norman, 74, 84, 99, 

hi, 215. 
Macmillan, Rev. Dr., memories, 

109, 143. 
Macmillan, Rev. Dr. Hugh, 138, 

147. 

M'Murtrie, Rev. Dr., 261. 
Magazine articles, 143, 149, 150. 
Manville, F. D., 280. 
Martin, Rev. Mr., 261. 
Matheson, Miss, 7, 21, 80, 289, 

303, 306, 337, 358. 
Matheson, Miss Ellen, 289, 358. 
Matheson, Mrs., 7. 
Matheson, Mr. John, 5, 73. 
Matheson, Mr. John, Barrhead, 6. 
Matheson, Sir Donald, 6. 
Melville, Andrew, 24. 
Memory, 305, 307. 



INDEX 



367 



Method in work, 151. 
" Modern English Novel," 347. 
Modernity, note of, 169. 
Moments on the Mounts 167. 
Momerie, Professor, 111. 
Moncreiff, Lord, 53. 
Monteath, Mrs., 289. 
Miiller, Julius, 134. 
Miiller, Max, 204. 
Murphy, Mr. Joseph, 211. 
Murtle Lecture, 335. 
Music, love of, 52. 
My Aspirations, 166. 

Natural Elements of Revealed 
Theology, 161, 202, 279. 

Natural Law in the Spiritual 
World, 211. 

Natural Religion, 153. 

Neander, 134. 

Newman, Cardinal, 190. 

Nichol, Professor, 34. 

Nicol, Professor, 335, 337. 

Nicoll, Dr. Robertson, 145, 207. 

Nisbet, James, & Co., 281. 

North Berwick, 349. 

Paley, 153. 

Pan - Presbyterian Council at 

Belfast, 206. 
Parker, Dr. Joseph, 316. 
Parkhurst, Rev. Charles, 238. 
Pascal, 171. 
Pasteur, 204. 

Pastoral Work, 111, 250, 260, 
318. 

Paton, Dr., of St. David's, Glas- 
gow, 5. 
Patronage, 88. 
Peace, Dr., 190. 

Perfection through suffering, 
236. 



Peters Letters to his Kinsfolk, 

Lockhart, 26. 
Poems— "Zillah," 60-64; "The 

Blind Girl's Retrospect," 64- 

68. 

Poetry,' love of, 55. 

Porteous, Rev. William, 94. 

Prayers, 106. 

Preaching, 231, 249. 

Prophets of the Christian Faith, 

by Dr. Lyman Abbott, 270. 
Psalmist and the Scientist, The, 

263, 266. 
Psalms, Book of, 104. 
Pulsford, Rev. Dr., 74, 75, 

120. 

Queen Victoria, 215. 
Quiver, The, 263. 

Raeburn, Sir Henry, 289. 
Ramsay, Professor Wm., 28, 
30- 

Ramshorn Church, 5. 
Rationalism, German, an exotic 

plant, 136. 
Reconciliation of opposites, 1, 

129, 187, 213, 236, 280. 
Rectorial election, 54. 
Reid, Mr., Glasgow Academy, 

17- 

Reid, Thomas, 35. 
Reminiscences, Mr. Wm. Smith's, 

292, 294, 298, 299, 301. 
Renan, 331. 

Representative Men of the Bible, 

132, 268, 343. 
Resignation, letters of, 319, 

323. 

Restoration — church at Innellan, 

112 ; St. Bernard's, 259. 
Rests by the River, 160, 162. 



368 



INDEX 



Revelation, 160, 162. 
Ripon, Bishop of, 215, 216, 
280. 

Ritchie, James, 6. 
Robertson, Principal, 229. 
Robertson of Brighton, 24, 108. 
Robertson, Rev. Mr., 261. 
Ronald, John, 18. 
Row, 56, 57. 

Sacred Songs, 60, 182, 186. 
Saint Andrew, 341. 
St. Bernard's Crescent, 19, Edin- 
burgh, 287. 
St. Giles' Lectures, 279. 
St. Madoes, 5. 

St. Vincent Crescent, Glasgow, 8, 

15, 16, 75- 
Sala, G. A., 115. 
Sandyford Church, 5. 
Sceptre without a Sword, 341. 
Schaff, 133, 206. 
Schenkel, 331. 
Schleiermacher, 135, 161. 
School honours, 16. 
Scientific interests, 153, 203. 
" Scientific Lights on Religious 

Problems," 343. 
Scott, Sir Walter, 25, 29, 229. 
Scottish Review, The, 204, 206. 
Scottish University System, 28. 
Searchings in the Silence, 167. 
Seeley, 331, 332. 

Selections from devotional writ- 
ings, 176, 178. 

Sermons — Dr. Matheson's first, 
49; last, 355. 

Sermon writing, 71. 

Sidelights from Patmos, 285. 

Sime, Dr. David, 68, 69, 137, 151, 
166, 199, 203, 283. 

Sime, Mr. James, 137, 204. 



Simson, Professor, 26. 
Skelmorlie, 56, 349. 
Smith, Adam, 35. 
Smith, Rev. Sydney, 232. 
Smith, Mr. William, 290. 
Socratic Dialogue Essay, 36. 
Somerville, Rev. Dr., of Black- 
friars, Glasgow, 49, 59. 
Songs, 54. 

Speeches at Innellan, 96, 98, 
201. 

Spencer, Herbert, 153, 203. 
Spiritual Development of St. 

Paul, 267-279, 294. 
Stalker, Dr., 208. 
Stevenson, Mr. William, 113, 

200.. 

Stewart, Professor, 34, 47. 

Stirling, Hutchison, 134. 

Story, Principal, 339. 

Strauss, 135, 154. 

Strong, Rev. Dr., 50. 

Studies of the Portrait of Christ, 

268, 327, 334, 345. 
Sunday at Innellan, 105. 
Sunday School Times, 263. 
Sunday Magazine, 182. 

Tennyson, Lord, 214, 352. 

Teviot Street, 86. 

Theological Translation Fund 

Library, 134. 
Tholuck, 134. 

Thomson, Rev. Robert, 47. 
Times of Retirement, 168, 341. 
Travel, 73. 

Tributes and opinions, no, in, 

199, 200, 207. 
Trinity Church, Glasgow, 71. 
Tulloch, Principal, in, 215. 
Tyndall, 204. 

Typewriter, use of, 296, 297. 



INDEX 



369 



University of Glasgow, Old and 

New, by Professor Stewart, 34. 
Unpublished writings, 131. 

Voices of the Spirit, 167, 266. 

Waddell, Rev. Dr. Hately, 307, 

35o, 353- 
Wakefield, Bishop of, ill. 
Watt, Dr. J. B., of Ayr, 114. 



Weir, Prof. Duncan, 44. 
Whyte, Rev. Dr. Alexander, 339. 
Wilkie, Sir David, 287. 
Wilson, Bailie, 5. 
Wilson & Matheson, 5. 
Wilson, Mr. Wm., 5. 
Woodside Terrace, 75. 
Women of the Bible, 132. 
Words by the Wayside, 167, 
285. 



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